Mom Offended By Receiving $132K Bill After Her Unattended Son Broke A Sculpture
The whole world is not a child's playground.
Helena Lopes | Unsplash There are lots of places designed for kids to roam free. A playground, a park, or even just a backyard. One of those places, however, is not somewhere with expensive and breakable art.
A family outing took a turn when a young boy accidentally broke a sculpture at a local community center, leaving his family with a $132,000 bill to cover damages and pay for their negligence. Though the mother claims it was an accident, somebody has to be held responsible for it.
An unattended 5-year-old boy broke a sculpture worth an estimated $132,000.
In 2018, a young boy attempted to hug a glass sculpture on display in the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center in Overland Park, accidentally knocking it over and breaking it. The sculpture, titled "Aphrodite di Kansas City," was on loan to an art exhibit at the community center, and the asking price was $132,000. His parents were surprised to later receive a letter seeking damages for the art piece.
The boy's mother, Sarah Goodman, was quoted in The Kansas City Star saying, "It’s clear accidents happen, and this was an accident. I don’t want to diminish the value of their art. But I can’t pay for that."
The city claimed that, when public property is damaged, it is responsible for filing a claim, and the insurance company is obligated to reach out to the party responsible for the damages. The letter to the Goodman family read, "This loss occurred when your son was in a closed area of the property and toppled a glass sculpture. Under common law in Kansas, you are responsible for the supervision of a minor child, and your failure to monitor them during this loss could be considered negligent. The cost of the sculpture damaged is estimated at $132,000."
The boy's mom was 'offended' after being called negligent.
The city of Overland Park was reimbursed for the damages a couple of months after the incident. A city spokesman shared that they received a check for $107,000 from the Goodman's insurance company, with the city's $25,000 deductible subtracted from the total amount.
The city planned to send the artist of the sculpture a check for $99,000, which is what he would have received if the piece had sold after the city took commission. However, the boy's mother is wondering whether a thorough investigation was done to appraise the artwork.
Goodman claimed she hadn't been told anything about the payment from her insurance company, and she maintained that her children were well-supervised. The family had been attending a wedding reception at the community center when the incident occurred, and she said she and her husband were just down the hallway when they heard the commotion.
Here's the thing with her reasoning, however. Down the hall is not exactly within arm's length, and 5 years old is a little too young to not be attended. Obviously, no one is blaming the child in this instance, and it's not the first time expensive art has been damaged out of sheer curiosity. Just last year, at The Hecht Museum in Israel, a 4-year-old boy knocked over a 3500-year-old vase from the Bronze Age because he was curious about what was inside.
Writing for artnet, Tim Brinkoff wisely noted that young children rarely damage art intentionally. They quite literally don't know any better. He wrote, "Often with juvenile iconoclasm, the common denominator isn’t the kids so much as the supervising adults — who may be unaware, uncaring or, in some instances, even filming their children as they break the first rule of museums: don’t touch."
Goodman questioned why the artwork was not secured or better protected in an area that families and children regularly attend.
In an effort to shift blame, Goodman asserted that the sculpture itself was a safety hazard to young children, and that "It needed to be cemented. They obviously didn’t secure it safely." Goodman was surprised that no one from the city reached out to see if her kid was okay. But her argument feels like a bit of a stretch. It wasn't a children's museum, after all. Kids and families regularly visit a multitude of places that house breakable items that are not child-proofed because, well, parents should be watching!
The artist, Bill Lyons, said the sculpture was "'clipped in' to a groove that the piece sat in on the pedestal, but the city did not require that it be bolted down or roped off."
Nicoleta Ionescu | Shutterstock
The security footage of the incident went viral online, and many viewers openly criticized the parents for not adequately supervising their child. One user on Reddit wrote, "If you decide to take your kid to a place that has too many expensive fragile things, you better hold that kid tight and right next to you. My dad wouldn’t even allow us to go near the glassware section in supermarkets for this same reason."
Other commenters were understanding that the child was young and learning, but the parents should have exercised better judgment regardless of the setting. Another Reddit user said, "I expect the occasional 'no touching' because kids are still learning at that age, but it’s like he pulled it right down and she’s nowhere to be seen in the footage until after."
When it comes to little kids, accidents happen. It's a reality of life. Thankfully no one was hurt, but perhaps instead of turning to the press or trying to blame everyone else for the ninja like skills of her 5-year-old, this mom should have just owned the fact that stuff like this happens and sometimes even the best parents can lose sight of a kid for few very destructive minutes.
Kayla Asbach is a writer currently working on her bachelor's degree at the University of Central Florida. She covers relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture, and human interest topics.
