800-year-old coffin broken when child placed inside for photo

A family who lifted their child into an 800-year-old coffin wound up damaging it earlier this month, a British museum told various news outlets. A family who lifted their child into an 800-year-old coffin wound up damaging it earlier this month, a British museum told various news outlets. Photo: Carol Yepes/Getty Images Photo: Carol Yepes/Getty Images Image 1 of / 33 Caption Close 800-year-old coffin broken when child placed inside for photo 1 / 33 Back to Gallery

Seems simple enough: Don't touch museum artifacts beyond any roped off sections.

Yet, a family thought it was best to ignore this well-known museum rule and place their child inside an 800-year-old coffin for a photograph, damaging the coffin in the process.

Officials at the Prittlewell Priory Museum in Southend, England said that the coffin was knocked off its stand when the child was lifted over a museum barrier for the photo on Aug. 4, causing it to become cracked down the center, with a chunk taken out of the front.

Ancient coffin breaks as child put in it at Southend museum https://t.co/XTTtBkDK4K — BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) August 22, 2017

"Staff heard a thump and that was the first indication something had happened," museum conservator Claire Reed told the BBC. "It was one of those isolated, terrible incidents. It's a very important artifact and historically unique to us as we don't have much archaeology from the priory."

The family ran off without saying anything to the museum but the incident was caught on CCTV.

Reed said "nothing like this has ever happened before" and that the staff was "shocked and upset" at the incident.

The coffin is believed to be the last of its kind, according to the Guardian, and was found in 1921 along with the skeleton of a monk. The priory was founded in the 13th century.

The damage is, thankfully, repairable. The museum is now working to fix the coffin and said it will have to keep the coffin enclosed in the future.