A very expensive mistake in the Netherlands: a boy damaged a Mark Rothko painting valued at 50 million euros.
A boy damaged a painting by American artist Mark Rothko , valued at €50 million , on display at the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The work suffered "small scratches on the unvarnished layer of paint at the bottom of the painting," museum sources reported.
According to museum sources who spoke to EFE on Wednesday, the work, titled "Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8," was damaged after the child touched it while it was on display on Monday. The incident occurred in a "moment of carelessness," a museum spokesperson told local broadcaster RTV Rijnmond .
They also explained that conservation experts are being sought in the Netherlands and abroad and the steps for treating the painting are being investigated, so restoration work has not yet begun. "We hope the work can be exhibited again in the future," they said.
Boijmans Van Beuningen did not provide information on the possible costs associated with the conservation of the work and stated that it would not distribute images of the damage .
The abstract work was acquired by Boijmans in 1970 and is one of two Rothko paintings in the museum's Dutch collections and one of its most valuable pieces, with an estimated value of between 40 and 50 million euros.
Mark Rothko (1903-1970), one of the greatest representatives of abstract expressionism , stood out for his color field painting and dedicated his career to expressing universal emotions, such as ecstasy or tragedy.
Mark Rothko's Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8, on display at the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Sophie McAloone, head of conservation at the Fine Art Restoration Company, told the BBC that "unvarnished modern paintings" such as this "Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8" are "particularly susceptible to damage."
He said this is due to "a combination of its complex modern materials, the lack of a traditional varnish layer, and the intensity of the flat color fields, which make even the smallest areas of damage instantly noticeable."
"In this case, the scratching of the upper layers of paint can have a significant impact on the visual experience of the work," McAloone said.
Furthermore, according to some experts, restoring a work by this artist is a difficult task because "Rothko's mix of pigments, resins, and glues was quite complex," and because the painting is unvarnished.
Curiously, this is not the first time one of the artist's paintings has been damaged. In 2012, Rothko's 1958 work "Black on Garnet" was vandalized by Wlodzimierz Umaniec at the Tate Modern gallery in London. Conservators spent 18 months repairing the painting, and the perpetrator was sentenced to two years in prison, although he later apologized for his actions.
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