- I've got it, the priceless artifact of the one ring.
No one will take it from us, gulp, gulp.
From time to time, the human race creates priceless objects
of historical significance that are revered by everyone,
and, of course, these pieces need
to be preserved for future generations.
Well, that is unless somebody comes along
and accidentally destroys them.
(bright piano music)
(glass breaking)
Here are 10 priceless artifacts destroyed by accident.
Number 10 is a Chinese lamp.
Ming Vases are priceless antiques
dating all the way back to 15th Century China.
Just to give you an idea, a single Ming Vase
can fetch millions of dollars at auction,
but, of course, that valuation depends entirely
on what you do with it.
That's because in 2012 a rare Ming Vase was put up
for auction that some bonehead had turned into a lamp.
They had actually glued a wooden base
to the priceless relic, attached metal fixings
at the neck, and then ran a wire
through a drilled hole to the light bulb.
Experts estimate that if it had remained untouched,
it would be worth three to four million dollars,
but somehow the vase still sold for $730,000,
but believe it or not,
this is not the only case of Ming vandalism.
Around the same time, another priceless Ming Vase
was found cracked and had been converted
into an umbrella stand.
DIY has never been so expensive.
Number nine is a 19th Century guitar.
(bright piano music)
In Quentin Tarantino's Western, The Hateful Eight,
Kurt Russell demolished an irreplaceable guitar.
It had been loaned to The Hateful Eight filmmakers.
It was an authentic Martin Acoustic Guitar
hand crafted from the 1870s.
As you can guess, there aren't that many still around.
The guitar was added to the scene for authenticity,
and in it, actress Jennifer Jason Leigh was strumming
the real guitar which Kurt Russell's character was supposed
to destroy in a fit of rage, but the plan was
to stop filming during the scene,
and then swap the guitar with a fake,
so that Kurt Russell could destroy it, but guess what?
That didn't happen, but guess what?
No one had told Kurt that.
He thought the guitar was the fake
and smashed it into a million pieces.
The camera caught Jennifer Jason Leigh's real reaction,
which was left in the final movie.
That's an expensive mistake.
That's nightmares for everybody.
Number eight is a parachuting rat.
(bright piano music)
In 2003, one of the world's most famous
contemporary artists, Banksy, painted a series
of anti-war paintings in Melbourne, Australia.
Known as the Parachuting Rat Series,
they were painted onto street walls
and were widely considered to be priceless pieces of art,
but one contractor from Melbourne mustn't have gotten
the memo because he painted over one of the wall paintings.
The Melbourne Council itself tends to promote street art.
However, they take exception
to gang tags spray painted on walls.
Guess what they thought the Banksy art work was?
That's where the misunderstanding came from.
As the cleaners were going around the city removing
such tags and other gang-related graffiti
wherever they found it, and all the Lord Mayor
of Melbourne could say about the destruction
of the Banksy painting was that it was an honest mistake.
Yeah, an expensive one.
Number seven is a crushed violin.
(bright piano music)
In 2008, renowned violinist, David Garrett,
destroyed his violin.
No big deal, right, all you gotta do is pop down
to the store and buy a new one, except David's violin
was worth more than one million dollars, ouchie.
The violin was built by instrument maker,
G.B. Guadagnini and was 230 years old.
David Garrett, the violin's owner
and eventual destroyer was carrying the violin
in a backpack case on that day.
In a hurry to meet his family after a performance,
he slipped and fell down a set of stairs,
when he landed on the violin with a (clicks teeth) crack.
His family rushed over to check if he was okay,
but David was more concerned about the priceless violin,
which now had several cracks across it.
The repairs cost $80,000, but on the bright side,
David believes that the violin saved his life,
kinda like a musical super hero.
Number six is Thomas Jefferson's Wine.
(bright piano music)
A New York wine merchant once turned one
of the rarest bottles of wine
into the world's most expensive puddle.
William Sokolin was known for his showmanship
at fancy black tie events.
In 1989, he attended a dinner party celebrating
the most recent and best wines from Bordeaux.
He knew that the highest profile wine experts
in New York would be attending, so he decided
to show off, and William did this
by bringing a 200-year-old bottle of wine,
hoping that someone at the event would eventually buy it,
but the wine itself was very special.
The bottle has been owned by Thomas Jefferson himself,
and even had his signature on the label,
but huh, while showing the unopened bottle off to the people
at the table, William accidentally struck
the bottle against the serving table.
The bottle shattered and the story has become legend
in drinking circles, and in YouTube videos.
Bonehead, bonehead.
Number five is Picasso's Le Reve.
(bright piano music)
A masterpiece was nearly destroyed
by the clumsiness of a billionaire.
The painting in question is the Le Reve,
a 1932 portrait Picasso painted of his mistress.
In 1997, the portrait was sold for 48.4 million dollars,
and it only took Picasso five hours to paint it.
In 2001, casino magnate Steve Wynn bought the painting,
and in 2006 showed it off to some
of his friends at his Las Vegas casino.
Unfortunately, Steve Wynn suffers from a condition
which affects his peripheral vision, so as he stood next
to the painting talking about its importance
and how Picasso painted it, disaster struck.
Like many people, Steve talks
while moving his hands, and at one point gestured
to the side poking his elbow straight through the middle
of the painting tearing it to pieces.
And, over here I invested half a billion
into this, gahh!
Okay, excuse me while I jump off this casino.
Number four are the Elgin Marbles.
( bright piano music)
The British Museum once accidentally damaged one
of the most important surviving relics of ancient Greece.
The Elgin Marbles are a series of stone sculptures,
which were part of the temple
of the Pantheon in Athens during the 5th Century BC.
When they were housed in the British Museum of London,
they were covered in a layer of grime
for decades of polution throughout the 19th
and early 20th Centuries.
During several attempts to clean the sculptures,
chemicals such as nitric acid were used
and finally stone scrapers were used to dislodge the dirt.
Unfortunately, this also eroded 2.55 millimeters
of the surface, and this removed much
of the detail on the statues which had survived
for thousands of years.
Wash, wash, wash, chip, chip, chip,
haw, boss, I made a boo-boo!
Number three are the Nazca Lines.
(bright piano music)
In 2014, Greenpeace managed to destroy parts
of the famous Nazca Lines.
These lines were carved into the ground
of the Nazca desert in Peru 1500 years ago.
They depict many things including shapes, animals,
ane even people, which can be seen from the sky,
but Greenpeace protestors decided that adding some lines
of their own to the desert would be a great way
to get their message across
of protecting the environment. (blows raspberry)
While leaving the words time for change,
the future is renewable on the ground,
they managed to vandalize the ancient site
with new lines of their own altering something
which had existed for over a thousand years.
Hey, Greenpeace, hey what's happening?
Listen, I'm all for saving he planet, but you know,
there's better ways to promote yourself
than being a dick, you're stupid.
Whey did you do that, oh my God.
Number two is Tutankhamen's Beard.
(bright piano music)
Tutankhamen is the most famous Egyptian Pharaoh
of all time, and his burial mask is one
of the most priceless artifacts in history.
It was crafted out of gold and intricate lapis lazuli.
Something so irreplaceable should be handled with care,
and yet, in 2014, workers managed
to break the mask's beard off.
Instead of following strict procedures
to restore the mask to its former glory,
an as of yet unidentified person
glued the beard back on using epoxy.
Hey, and they did a great job,
except that it was off center.
Experts noticed the damage and the fact
that old Tutankhamen was now sporting a squint beard,
and there was a national inquiry as to what happened.
While no one knows exactly who was responsible,
eight employees of Egypt's National Museum
are awaiting trial for being involved.
Ha, could you imagine that guy's panic.
He's like got to be clean, got to be safe, snap, haaaah.
And number one is the most expensive game of dominoes.
(bright piano music)
At an exhibition in Los Angeles, a museum visitor decided
to take a selfie next to a series
of expensive crown sculptures
which were displayed on individual pedestals.
You already know this is gonna turn out terrible.
When the visitor leaned against one of the pedestals,
she lost her balance, fell backwards,
and began what can only be called the most expensive game
of dominoes in history.
The pedestals fell into each other throwing many
of the sculptures to the ground,
and it was all caught on glorious video.
It was estimated that the accident caused hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of damage,
and that some of the sculptures
were either completely destroyed or would require
ridiculous amount of extensive work to be fixed.
Before the accident, the L.A. Times had described
the exhibition as a great place to take a perfect selfie.
Bet their regretting that, hey, let's do it,
snap, snap, oh God!
So, those were ten priceless artifacts
destroyed by accident.
By the way, take a look at this horrific selfie.
That is just, that's not going on Instagram,
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Thank you guys for watching.
Don't take a screen shot of that and put it on Instagram.
I just realized that's probably gonna happen.
Goodbye now!