An expert hired by a Cambridge museum to restore three Qing Dynasty vases smashed when a sketch artist fell down stairs and into the artefacts is confident the items can be put back together and displayed again.
Penny Bendall, a ceramics conservator, is in charge of restoring the two vases and a large baluster-form jar and has already started working on one of the pieces, officials at the Fitzwilliam Museum said. The three pieces had sat undisturbed on a windowsill next to a marble staircase for about 50 years.
Ms Bendall said the cracks would be visible and not covered up with paint in order to show the authenticity of the vases, which was the norm among museums today. The restoration was expected to cost GBP6,000 to GBP10,000 ($81,000 to $135,000).
On January 25, Nicholas Flynn, an unemployed artist who frequented the museum to sketch artefacts, tripped and fell down the stairs into the three vases, smashing them into hundreds of pieces and turning him into a minor international celebrity.
But last week he caused a commotion when nervous museum guards and staff barred him from entering as he accompanied a local TV news crew to attend a media conference on the repair of the vases.
A museum spokeswoman said he was expelled because the conference was for the media and not the public.
A local newspaper reported that museum director Duncan Robinson said it would have been 'inappropriate' for Mr Flynn to attend, although he added that the artist had not been permanently banned.