5-Year-Old Knocks Over Sculpture Worth $132,000, Parents Asked To Foot Bill

A five-year-old boy was caught on surveillance footage hugging a glass mosaic sculpture at a local community center in Kansas. Moments later, it toppled over and almost fell on the boy before dropping to the ground. Following that, the parents of the boy were sent a notice to pay $132,000 — the entire amount the sculpture was worth.

The sculpture in question was “Aphrodite di Kansas City” that was on display in the lobby of the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center. The artist, who built it, Bill Lyons, said it took him two years to design the piece, which was now beyond repair after the incident. “It’s beyond my capabilities and desires to rebuild it,” he told ABC News.

The piece was listed for sale at $132,000 — a sum being claimed by the city of Overland Park’s insurance company, for the parents’ failure to supervise their child. “Your failure to monitor could be considered negligent,” the insurance letter read in part.

Sarah Goodman, the boy’s mother, said that the price that they were asked to pay as damages was unbelievable and the family still has no idea how they are going to foot the bill. “$132,000 is completely astronomical,” she said. “We’ll see what the insurance company says and if they’re going to take it to lawyers. We don’t know.”

She said that she “was surprised, absolutely, more so offended to be called negligent.” She said that she and her husband could not be seen in the CCTV camera footage because they were bidding farewell in a wedding reception that they had been invited to in the same facility.

According to Goodman, the incident caught her attention only when she heard her son being asked where his mother was. “We heard a bunch of commotion and I thought, ‘Who's yelling at my son?’” Goodman explained. “This glass mosaic torso is laying on the ground and someone is following me around demanding my personal information.”

She added that if the sculpture was indeed so valuable, there should have been better protection around it. “It’s in the main walkway. Not a separate room. No plexiglass. Not protected. Not held down,” she said. “There was no border around it. There wasn’t even a sign around it that said, ‘Do not touch.’”

City officials debated, however, that the art in question was secured to the pedestal with clips and that it was “a not an interactive piece.” “We’ve had other pieces there [and] we’ve not had problems,” said city spokesman Sean Reilly. “We’ve not had this situation… we’ve not had kids climb on our pieces.”

Goodman also claimed that although the surveillance footage clearly showed that the piece fell on top of her son first, no one stepped forward to ask her once if the five-year-old was alright.

“He’s honestly been having bad dreams every night,” she said. “None of these people have ever once said, ‘How is Troy? How is your son holding up? Is his face okay?’”

A spokesperson with the City of Overland Park said that following the incident the city filed an insurance claim, after which, the latter contacted the Goodman family.

“It was a piece that was loaned to us that we are responsible for. That’s public money,” spokesperson Sean Reilly told Fox 43. “We are responsible to protect the public investment.”