You’re at an art museum, attracted to a piece that speaks to your soul. You want to touch it.
Don’t. Here’s why.
As captured on security camera video at the National Watch & Clock Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania, a man and a woman walked up to a unique-looking clock on Tuesday and examined it with curiosity.
The man started to touch it, seemingly trying to move parts on the clock that appear to rotate.
After a few cringe-worthy moments of touching — one piece from the top falls to the ground — the entire clock crashed to the floor. Oops.
Now the man is kind of famous, for the wrong reason. The museum used the security video to create a YouTube video called “Please Don’t Touch!!!” It had more than 225,000 views late Friday.
“This,” said Kim Jovinelli, curator of collections at the museum, “is why we say don’t touch the art.”
The museum describes the clock as a one-of-a-kind piece created by the award-winning, Iowa-based artist James Borden.
An article on the Smithsonian website describes him as an artist who doesn’t just build clocks, but creates sculptures that tell time.
Jovinelli said the museum posted the video on YouTube not to shame the man, but as an education tool to prevent further incidents.
The patron alerted staff members and owned up to what he did. The museum didn’t identify the man, or penalize him for not following the signs and damaging the clock.
The clock sculpture has been returned to the artist, who will determine whether it can be restored.