Pigeon Pecked Hole In Museum Masterpiece - Blown Out Of The Air

[matcom]

<snip>

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A bird with a penchant for 17th century Dutch art has paid the ultimate price for flying into a museum gallery and pecking a hole in a masterpiece.

"We tried everything to catch the pigeon and called in experts to grab it, but in the end they had to shoot it out of the air," a museum official said.

The other victim, Thomas de Keyser's 1633 painting of a civic guard was restored and put back on display on Thursday.

"It's one of the more important 'civic guard' pieces," said the official, referring to the city watchmen depicted in the work. "Luckily the hole was in a shadowy part of the painting and not in one of the guards' faces."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=1&u=/nm/20040723/od_nm/dutch_pigeon_dc

[Fenris]

1. I can't blame the pidgeon. I hate the Flemish Masters as well.

Lousy, formulaic Dutch bastards!

[underpants]

2. "The idea came from the common need for cutlery at any time,"

Applies here too