A child visiting the Depot, a publicly accessible storage facility at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, made small scratches on Mark Rothko's painting *Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8* (1960). The museum confirmed superficial damage to the unvarnished paint layer and is consulting conservation experts in the Netherlands and abroad, expecting the work to be displayable again in the future. No information on valuation, repair costs, or further handling has been released, and images of the damage will not be circulated.
The incident raises questions about the risks of open-access storage models, which allow the public to view artworks not on traditional display. Jonny Helm of art restoration firm Plowden & Smith noted implications for other institutions, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum's upcoming V&A East Storehouse in London, which will similarly open its collections to the public. The damage to a major Rothko—whose *Orange Red Yellow* sold for $86.8 million in 2012—underscores the tension between accessibility and preservation in contemporary museum practice.