05/04/2006

Police arrest man who smashed museum vases

A museum visitor who said that he had accidentally broken three porcelain vases has been arrested.

Nick Flynn, 42, was arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage to the 17th Century vases which date from the Quing Dynasty and were on display on a recessed window sill in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Mr Flynn claimed that he had stumbled into the antique vases after his shoelace had become untied.

A specialist is attempting to restore the three vases from the fragments recovered after the incident on January 25 this year. Two vases were completely smashed and the third was seriously damaged. The vases, which have been on display since 1948, are estimated to be worth in excess of £300,000.

Cambridgshire police said that a 42-year-old man had been arrested in connection with their inquiries.

(SP/GB)

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