Museum Shares Sweet Update After Boy Accidentally Smashes 3,500-Year-Old Jar

It’s not every day that someone accidentally breaks a museum’s 3,500-year-old artifact — or then gets invited back.

But that’s exactly what happened to the 4-year-old who was welcomed back to Israel’s Hecht Museum on Friday with a personal tour and hands-on lesson on archeological restoration, days after he smashed an ancient jar in an incident that made parents everywhere shudder.

“The family was extremely happy and ecstatic to visit Hecht Museum again,” Dr. Inbal Rivlin, the museum’s general director, told HuffPost in an email Friday when asked if there was any lingering unease during the reunion.

“The guided tour they received from the museum staff and the opportunity to experience the restoration kit first-hand will more than make up for the events of last week,” Rivlin added.

The 4-year-old, Ariel, was touring the museum with his family when he got too close to a jar dating to the Middle Bronze Age, causing it to topple, the museum previously reported.

The jar had been described as an “impressive find,” with Rivlin noting that “similar jars have been found in archaeological excavations, but most were found broken or incomplete.”

The museum said that a review of surveillance footage showed that the jar’s destruction was a total accident, and insisted, “we hold no animosity toward the child or his family.” Rather than punish him, the museum said, it wanted to use the moment to educate the child and others.

As part of his visit on Friday, Ariel and his family assembled and restored another small broken jar with a restoration kit provided by the museum.

Once the original broken jar is restored by a specialist ― a task that is expected to take one to two weeks ― it will go back on display at the museum’s entrance.