If you thought your children were destructive heathens not to be trusted in public, well, you’re probably going to feel better about any accidents they may have had in the past.
Because no matter what they might have destroyed, the chances are high that it wasn’t a one-of-a-kind replica of Disneyland’s Fantasy castle that cost over sixty grand.
The intricate glass model resided at the Shanghai Museum of Glass in China, and was a replica of Shanghai Disneyland’s Fantasy Castle. The incident occurred when two children who were playing a game climbed over the barriers that separated the model from the public.
This is the largest glass-blown castle in the world! Made by Miguel Arribas, it took 500+ hours and over 30,000 glass loops. The Arribas fantasy castle is currently at The Shanghai Museum of Glass in China. #glasscastle #arribasbrothers #cystalarts pic.twitter.com/RkmQP6HWpS
— Arribas Brothers (@arribasbrothers) December 30, 2017
They ran into the box holding it, dislodged a piece, and it shattered.
As you can imagine, the sound of breaking glass in a glass museum caused immediate alarm, but the museum itself has been pretty chill about the whole thing.
Surprisingly chill, if you ask me.
The museum made the following comment in Weibo,
“The little visitors knew that their behavior was inappropriate, and, under the encouragement of their parents, reported the incident to the museum staff.
Their attitudes were friendly and sincere, and they agreed to help out with follow-up matters.”
Well, that’s a very tidy attitude!
By the way, did I mention that the model took… 500 hours to build!!!!
And it was comprised of over 30,000 components and is adorned with 24-carat gold.
A little backstory… it was created by the Arribas Brothers, a company created when two Spanish glassblowers met Walt Disney at the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens, NY. Three years later they operated a tiny glass studio inside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland.
The good news?
Miguel Arribas has agreed to fix the display castle, and the museum plans to include a program teaching kids what they can and cannot touch going forward.
Some think the museum should have gone with a “you break it, you bought it” philosophy, accusing the parents of raising “little emperors,” which is the Chinese term for spoiled brats.
The museum is hopeful that the changes they’re making will encourage children and their families to visit the space for generations to come – but to be a bit more careful when they do.
The secondhand parental anxiety and horror is real, is it not?
I think I would have died of mortification if this had been my little emperor! Ugh!