London: The greatest fear of any waiter at a prestigious event must be to drop a plate or spill a drink on an eminent guest.
Few will suffer the indignity of accidentally knocking a thumb off a priceless Roman statue with their head.
The British Museum has admitted to an “unfortunate incident” where the thumb of the Townley Venus was knocked off by a member of the catering staff. The worker, who was employed by an external company not regularly used by the museum, had bent down underneath the statue and when they rose again, their head hit the protruding marble thumb with such force it knocked it off.
A spokesman for the museum said it had taken the incident “seriously”, with the sculpture “fully restored” quietly by conservators. Until now, the British Museum has not offered any information about the damage, restoration or disciplinary measures, with no clear reference to it in the documents it must release in the public domain.
The damage occurred on December 10 last year and was reported by The Art Newspaper yesterday (Wednesday). Trustees were informed at a meeting in March, but publicly available minutes state only that deputy director Jonathan Williams “informed the board of repairable damage to an object”. The thumb was in fact knocked off during a corporate party at the museum, which rents out its gallery spaces for events.
It is understood that caterers were preparing for the evening in the Ancient Greek and Roman galleries. The broken thumb was fixed back on with an adhesive in situ, while the gallery was closed to visitors. The work was said to be “straightforward”. The statue, described by The Art Newspaper as “one of the British Museum’s most important Roman sculptures”, dates from the first or second century AD and is a marble copy of a fourth-century BC Greek Venus.
Named after collector Charles Townley, it was found in Rome in 1775 and sold to the museum in 1805. The statue suffered a similar indignity in 2012, when a finger was knocked off by a visitor.
It is understood the catering company was new to the museum, and has not been invited back. A spokesman for the museum said: “This was an unfortunate incident. The preservation of the collection is of fundamental importance.
“Our expert conservators have been able to fully restore the object and it has remained on public display.
“We have taken the incident seriously and have retrained all individuals responsible for events.” She added that staff had refreshed their training to be “fully practised in moving themselves around historical objects” while being “always conscious of the potential risks”. The repaired Townley Venus remains on display.
