Texas man bursts into an art museum and destroys $5m worth of irreplaceable ancient Greek artifacts and a Native American ‘effigy bottle’ – telling police he carried out the rampage because he was “angry with his girl.”
A 21-year-old man broke into an art museum and destroyed $5 million worth of irreplaceable ancient Greek artifacts after a fight with his girlfriend. Two of the items were destroyed by Hernandez, both dating from Ancient Greece to the 6th century BCE.
This occurred shortly before 10 p.m. someone “forcibly entered” the museum on Wednesday, according to a museum spokesman.
The suspect was later identified as Brian Hernandez, who was apprehended shortly after fleeing the area. He’s facing charges of criminal mischief.
A security guard found Hernandez in the museum’s main lobby after a motion detection sensor was triggered. When the guard asked Hernandez what he was doing, he said he replied that “he got mad at his girl, so he broke in and started destroying property.”
Police say Hernandez also called 9-11 on himself from inside the museum. Police arrived at the scene around 10:10 p.m.
The Dallas Museum of Art remains available to the public, however certain sections have been shuttered due to the damage.
Many visitors to the museum on Thursday were unaware of what had occurred until they arrived.
“Honestly, it’s really saddening. I am a big fan of the DMA, it has such historical art. It’s a tragic event to the whole Dallas community and we hope they can recover,” Amail Beimenec said.
Museum director Agustín Arteaga said in a statement Thursday that the museum is working with insurers to assess the damage and that the estimate may be lower than the initial figure of $5 million.
“We anticipate the actual total could be a fraction of the original estimate of $5 million,” he said.
The museum was open Thursday, while some of the sections damaged by Hernandez remained closed as the investigation continues.
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Sources: Scallywagandvagabond, Narcity, Yahoo
