During a scene in the Oscar-nominated “The Hateful Eight”, Jennifer Jason Leigh is seen strumming on a guitar — until co-star Kurt Russell grabs it and breaks it to pieces.

But apparently this wasn’t just any old guitar. According to a story on SSN Insider, the instrument was an 1870s-vintage loaner from the Martin Guitar Museum that wasn’t meant to get a scratch on it.

“We were supposed to go up to that point, cut, and trade guitars and smash the double. Well, somehow that didn’t get communicated to Kurt. So when you see that happen on the frame, Jennifer’s reaction is genuine,” Mark Ulano, a sound mixer on the Quentin Tarantino flick, told entertainment industry news site SSN.

Here’s the scene with Russell, who plays bounty hunter John Ruth. Leigh seems to at one point to look off camera and screams, “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

Leigh, who plays gang leader Daisy Domergue, told the London Evening Standard in an interview that she never expected Tarantino to use the 145-year-old guitar, worth $40,000, in the scene.

“I had wanted to keep it as my memento,” said Leigh, who has been nominated for an Oscar for her performance. “But then Kirk decimated it during filming — my reaction is real, because I was in so much shock. We all thought Quentin was going to use a cheap prop, but he used the real one.”

Ulano told SSN there were six doubles made for the museum-quality guitar. Instruments made by C.F. Martin & Co., established in 1833, have sold for high prices. In 2009, a Martin guitar dating from 1930 sold at a Christie’s auction for $554,500, well above its estimate, while in 2004, Eric Clapton’s 1939 Martin guitar sold for $791,500 at an auction.

Reverb, an information site for guitar lovers, reports the Martin Guitar Museum is so upset it will now no longer loan any guitars to movies under any circumstances.

“All this about the guitar being smashed being written into the script, and that somebody just didn’t tell the actor — this is all new information to us,” Dick Boak, director of the museum, archives and special projects at C.F. Martin, told Reverb.

Boak said the museum was told it was an accident on set, and his team assumed an object had fallen on the guitar. The fragments were returned to the curators, but were found to be beyond repair.

While the owners had insured the instrument, it was only covered for its price at purchase — but that’s nothing, compared with its worth as a part of history, according to Boak.

“We’ve been remunerated for the insurance value, but it’s not about the money. It’s about the preservation of American musical history and heritage,” he said.