A British artist who slipped over his shoelaces and crashed into three antique Chinese vases in a British museum has apologized to China for his mishap, a media report said yesterday.
Nick Flynn, 42, said he hadn't meant to cause offense to people in Hong Kong or China when he destroyed the Qing Dynasty treasures after tripping over his shoelaces at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, eastern England.
"I'm truly saddened by it. If I could put it back together again I would do," Flynn told Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post. "I didn't mean China any harm."
Flynn earned worldwide notoriety when his fall down a staircase destroyed the vases, believed to be worth some £100,000 (US$175,000).
Dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, the vases had been at the museum for at least 40 years and were among its best-known artefacts.
Despite their value, Flynn, a regular visitor to the museum where he said he often did sketches of its priceless collection of valuables, said one of them had been used as a dustbin.
"It was full of old sweet wrappers," he said, calling on museum authorities to do more to protect its exhibits.
Flynn denied rumors he had been drinking before the accident and said the museum had rescinded a ban on him entering its galleries.
He said he was stunned by the extent of the damage and the worldwide reaction to it.
"When I found out how massive the story had grown I was absolutely petrified of walking out of the house," he told the paper.
"When it happened I thought those vases were worth £5,000. I haven't got anything like £100,000," said Flynn, who lives off a disability allowance.
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