3 ancient Greek vessels destroyed at DMA in overnight break-in

A person who broke into the Dallas Museum of Art on Wednesday night time precipitated important injury, destroying property together with three ancient Greek objects and a up to date Native American piece earlier than he was arrested, Dallas police mentioned.

Brian Hernandez, 21, approached the museum’s glass entrance doorways with a steel chair at about 9:40 p.m. and started destroying objects as soon as inside, police mentioned.

Hernandez broke right into a glass show case and shattered a Sixth-century B.C. Greek amphora — a kind of ceramic vase — and a Greek field from 450 B.C. The items collectively have been valued at roughly $5 million, police mentioned, primarily based on information from the DMA’s safety and operations director, Kenneth Bennett.

But later Thursday, museum director Agustín Arteaga mentioned in a press release that the DMA is working with insurers and that “we anticipate the real total could be a fraction of the original $5 million estimate.”

Hernandez can be accused of destroying a 550–530 B.C. bowl that was valued at $100,000. Police mentioned he additionally broke right into a show case, picked up a ceramic Caddo effigy bottle depicting an alligator gar and slammed it to the bottom, shattering it. The piece was valued at $10,000.

“Three ceramic Greek vessels were seriously damaged in addition to one Native American contemporary ceramic piece,” Arteaga mentioned in the assertion. “In addition, less than a dozen smaller pieces that were in the same glass case attacked, might have suffered minor damages.”

The museum was open to the general public Thursday, together with its “Cartier and Islamic Art” exhibition. Some everlasting assortment galleries have been closed for the continued investigation.

The shattered objects are amongst greater than 24,000 works in the DMA’s cross-cultural assortment, which spans 5,000 years. They’re hardly the most costly objects the museum has housed. For eight months in 2012, a portray by Leonardo da Vinci now thought-about the world’s most respected art work reclined on an easel in a storeroom in the constructing. It bought at public sale to the Saudi crown prince for a document $450.3 million in 2017.

Hernandez was learn his rights and confessed to officers, police mentioned. He was charged with prison mischief of greater than or equal to $300,000. Bail has not been decided.

The museum famous that Hernandez acted alone and unarmed, including that his objective was to not steal any art work.

A DMA safety guard discovered Hernandez on the museum’s concourse after a movement sensor went off and apprehended him earlier than calling police. Police mentioned Hernandez additionally referred to as 911 on himself from contained in the museum. Police responded at about 10:10 p.m.

Hernandez is being held in the Dallas County Jail, Dallas police mentioned Thursday.

The guard informed police that Hernandez mentioned “he got mad at his girl so he broke in and started destroying property,” police mentioned.

Police mentioned Bennett, the DMA safety and operations director, confirmed them video of the suspect damaging and destroying museum property. In addition to the art work, Hernandez is accused of inflicting tens of hundreds of {dollars} in injury to different property together with show circumstances, furnishings, a pc and telephones.

“While we are devastated by this incident, we are grateful that no one was harmed. The safety of our staff and visitors, along with the care and protection of the art in our stewardship, are our utmost priorities,” the museum mentioned.

DMA board member Mary McDermott Cook, whose late mother and father donated or made accessible to the museum hundreds of items of artwork, obtained a first-hand account of the vandalism on Thursday morning from museum director Agustín Arteaga. The name “made me sick to my stomach,” Cook mentioned.

“I feel like everything has gone nuts, and this is one thing that went nuts,” she mentioned. “But what I also said is, ‘Let’s face it. It’s just things. No person was hurt. And we have the technology and the expertise to put broken things back together.’ And thank God for that.”

Michael Granberry and Maggie Prosser contributed to this report.