{"id":702298,"date":"2026-06-13T20:25:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702298\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T20:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:25:22","slug":"famed-magritte-painting-damaged-by-child-with-pine-cone-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702298\/","title":{"rendered":"Famed Magritte painting damaged by child with pine cone"},"content":{"rendered":"

A painting<\/a> by the Belgian artist Ren\u00e9 Magritte<\/a> has been damaged by a 5-year-old boy wielding a pine cone.<\/p>\n

Conservators at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem are currently restoring the \u201cCastle of the Pyrenees\u201d after the child caused what the museum described as \u201cminor damage\u201d to it in a recent incident.<\/p>\n

The 1959 painting, which depicts a castle atop an enormous rock floating above stormy seas, is a \u201cbeloved highlight\u201d of the institution\u2019s collection, according to the museum. It was commissioned by the surrealist\u2019s good friend and patron Harry Torczyner, who gave it to the institution in 1985 to mark its 20th anniversary.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the museum told CNN on Friday that the painting \u201csustained minor, unintentional damage caused by a five-year-old child who was holding a pine cone.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement emailed to CNN, the spokesperson said: \u201cAs one of our most-visited paintings, a five-year-old boy and his grandmother sought it out in our modern art galleries a few weeks ago, resulting in minor damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the damage was done \u201cinadvertently,\u201d amounting to \u201can unfortunate incident that occasionally happens worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, this is not the first time a work by a world-famous artist has been damaged by a young museum visitor. Last year, a Mark Rothko painting, believed to be worth millions of dollars, had to be removed from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. \u201cGrey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8\u201d was damaged when a visiting child scratched it. That piece has since been fully restored and is currently on display as part of a major Rothko exhibition in Florence, Italy.<\/p>\n

Works by Magritte, one of the most prominent artists of the 20th-century surrealist movement, can command huge sums at auction. In 2024, his 1954 painting \u201cL\u2019empire des lumi\u00e8res\u201d<\/a> sold for a record $121 million at Christie\u2019s in New York.<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Jerusalem museum often seek out \u201cCastle of the Pyrenees,\u201d and in 2022 it was the subject of an entire exhibition dedicated to its story and provenance. Visitors to that exhibition, the audio of which is still available on the museum\u2019s website, discovered that Belgian art lover Torczyner commissioned Magritte to produce a work to cover an \u201cugly view\u201d from a large window in his office.<\/p>\n

The museum spokesperson told CNN: \u201cOur expert conservation team is already studying and repairing the work, and we look forward to returning this beloved collection highlight to the galleries as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

They went on to add that, where possible, \u201cthe museum balances the visitor experience with the need to place barriers in front of artworks,\u201d adding: \u201cIt is always evaluating this equilibrium.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A painting by the Belgian artist Ren\u00e9 Magritte has been damaged by a 5-year-old boy wielding a pine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,303603,303601,55951,303604,303602,31474],"class_list":["post-702298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-harry-torczyner","tag-magritte","tag-mark-rothko","tag-minor-damage","tag-pine-cone","tag-spokesperson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}