The skylight that covers the spectacular atrium at the heart of the Cleveland Museum of Art has sprung leaks, a little less than a year after the completion of the big space.

On Wednesday, two buckets were visible inside the atrium. One caught a slow drip on mezzanine walkway on the north side of the atrium. A second stood just in front of a large sculpture of a rooster's head, one of a dozen bronze sculptures by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei representing Chinese zodiac creatures.

Jeffrey Strean, the museum’s director of design and architecture, said the leaks were minor and posed no threat to artworks.

He said they’d be fixed at no cost to the museum by Gilbane Inc., which partnered with Panzica Construction Co. on the museum’s $350 million expansion and renovation, scheduled for completion in December.

Spokesmen for Gilbane could not be reached immediately for comment Thursday morning.

“It’s still the first year of operations and our agreement with Gilbane still covers the roof – it’s a shakeout period,” Strean said.

The leak over the mezzanine walkway on the north side of the atrium has appeared periodically during heavy rains, and may be coming from the outside, Strean said.

“We’ve been tracking it,” he said.

After a heavy rain Wednesday afternoon, a drop of water fell every few seconds from the Cleveland Museum of Art's atrium skylight into a bucket on the mezzanine walkway on the main gallery level.

Strean said he suspected that the leak on the south side of the atrium, near the Ai Weiwei sculpture, is most likely coming from the skylight’s sprinkler system or the heating system used to mitigate condensation on the skylight glass.

Museum employees briefly covered the Ai Weiwei rooster to protect it from the drip nearby because the water in the museum’s sprinkler system is treated with chemicals, Strean said.

The Ai bronzes have been installed in exterior locations in New York and London.

The atrium is the centerpiece of the museum’s expansion and renovation, designed by architect Rafael Vinoly of New York.