A Mark Rothko painting thought to be worth tens of millions of dollars is undergoing restoration after a child accidentally damaged the artwork at a museum in the Netherlands.
“Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8” sustained some visible scratches when a child brushed against the abstract painting at the Depot, a public storage area of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
In the Depot, much of the art is displayed similarly to how it would in a gallery without traditional exhibition protections.
The Depot is currently showing highlights of its vast collection as the main museum undergoes renovations.
“It happened because a child, in an unsupervised moment, touched the lower part of the work. There was no intent. This was not vandalism,” museum spokesperson Vincent Cardinaal told ABC News.
The painting has since been moved to the museum’s conservation lab.
Cardinaal said the restoration process was expected to be successful and that the painting would be able to be displayed in the future.
The museum did not release images of the damage, further description or estimates of repair costs.
A vandal who wrote on another Rothko piece at the Tate Modern in London caused about $250,000 in damages that cost 18 months to repair.
“Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8” has never been auctioned but it’s estimated to be worth between $50 and $60 million.
“Untitled, 1968” — another of Rothko’s “color field” paintings — sold for $23.9 million at Sotheby’s in 2023.
The Dutch museum acquired the piece in 1970 after Rothko’s death.
