A few Norwegian children got themselves into serious trouble last weekend when they accidentally desecrated a 5,000-year-old rock carving while trying to beautify it, reports the Telegraph.
When the two children came across the rock carving on the island of Tro, they thought they could improve it by carving into it several times to make it more visible. Little did they know they had just ruined one of the earliest performances of skiing in history. The boys turned themselves in when someone reported the vandalism to authorities.
“It’s a sad, sad story,” county archaeologist Tor-Kristian Storvik told the Telegraph. “The new lines are both inside and outside the old marks. We will never be able to relive those carvings like we have for the past 5,000 years.”
Predictably, local officials are also pissed off, calling the children vandals for defacing the sculpture. Local mayor Bård Anders Langø said the incident was a “tragedy” for Norway’s cultural heritage, not to mention tourism.
“We spoke to the perpetrators and their families, and they want to apologize for what they did,” Langø said. “It was done with good intentions. They were trying to make it more visible actually, and I don’t think they understood how serious it was.”
The sculpture was considered a national artifact and protected under the country’s cultural heritage law, so small restorers could face criminal charges for their stunt. Sometimes you try to do something good, and it backfires royally, you know?
Read: We’re all the Taiwanese kid who punched a hole in a $1.5 million painting
Comments are closed.