Sometimes it can be tough to tell the difference between an accident and art. That was the lesson learned when a visitor at London's Royal Academy stumbled into the 9-ft.-tall ceramic sculpture at the heart of a 2008 exhibition by Costa Rican artist Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez. Initially, an eyewitness reported, museumgoers seemed to think the hundreds of pieces of broken pottery were part of the exhibition. "They were taking pictures," said the witness, Claire San Martin, at the time. "It was quite funny." Fernandez likely thought otherwise.
Top 10 Art Accidents
On Jan. 22, 2010, a New York Metropolitan Museum of Art visitor accidentally fell into The Actor, a 105-year-old painting by Pablo Picasso, ripping the canvas. In honor of her embarrassing stumble, TIME takes a look at other torn, smashed, and accidentally discarded works of art