A child visiting the Israel Museum in Jerusalem damaged René Magritte's iconic painting *The Castle of the Pyrenees* (1959) by piercing the canvas with a pinecone found in the museum garden. The museum's conservation team, led by Sharon Tager, is treating the paint layers and mending the canvas, though the work's off-display duration remains unconfirmed.
This incident highlights the vulnerability of masterworks to accidental damage by young visitors, echoing a similar event in 2023 when a child scratched a Mark Rothko painting at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. It raises questions about museum security and visitor engagement protocols, especially in spaces where artworks are displayed without barriers.