Last month, Anna Geller and her four-year-old son, Ariel, experienced an unexpected event during their visit to the Hecht Museum in Israel. While exploring the museum’s collection of ancient artifacts, Geller briefly turned her attention away from Ariel. Suddenly, a loud crash erupted behind her. When she turned around, she discovered that Ariel had accidentally knocked over and shattered a rare 3,500-year-old jar.
Geller, a mother of three from Nahariya, described the moment with a mix of shock and dismay, saying, “It was just a moment of distraction, and then I heard a very big boom.” The incident, which could have easily been a parent’s worst nightmare, unexpectedly led to a positive turn of events.
Rather than facing severe consequences, the Geller family was graciously invited back to the museum on August 30. This gesture allowed them to see the impact of their accident from a different perspective. The museum’s curators and restoration experts assessed the damage to the Bronze Age jar, which had been a centerpiece of the museum’s collection for 35 years. Despite the jar’s significant age and value, the experts found that the damage was not as severe as initially feared. They noted that the jar’s pieces were all from a single, intact artifact, making the restoration process relatively straightforward.
Thanks to the careful work of the restoration team, the jar could potentially be repaired and back on display as early as next week. What started as a distressing accident transformed into an opportunity for the Geller family to contribute to the preservation of historical artifacts.
