Niigata City to settle issue of junior high school students destroying artwork at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale during school trip by paying 6.74 million yen in damages, without seeking compensation from parents nst 2024.12.03 In the case of a junior high school student destroying artwork at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale during a school trip in April 2022, it has been learned that Niigata City will submit a bill to settle the issue at the December city council meeting by paying 6.74 million yen in damages to Tokamachi City. In April 2022, junior high school students from Niigata City on a school trip destroyed two artworks from the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale that were on display at the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art Monet in Tokamachi City. Over this issue, Tokamachi City is seeking damages from Niigata City. According to Niigata City, discussions were ongoing with Tokamachi City regarding the estimated value of the damaged artworks. It has also been learned that Niigata City will submit a bill to the city council in December to settle the matter by paying 6.74 million yen in damages to Tokamachi City. It was also revealed that the police had decided not to pursue charges, as “it could not be proven that the act was intentional.” The city has not identified the perpetrator, and as the incident occurred during an educational activity, a school trip, the city will pay damages and will not seek compensation from the parents or the school. The students at the time wrote letters to the author expressing their apologies, and the author of the work also said, “Everyone makes small mistakes when they are young. The artist is still alive and has the energy and strength to restore the work,” he said, and the work was repaired and put on display.
In other words, if you trick an artist into exhibiting his trash in a museum and then have students from a public middle school destroy it, you’ve set a precedent that allows you to use tax money to buy that trash at whatever price you want.
Compensation for damages is a complicated term, but if they paid 6.74 million yen, they must have bought it, right? If you keep it, there’s a chance that the value will go up in the future, even if it’s broken.
I remember there was an incident like that. Niigata City is really getting the blame. I think they should pass the burden on to the parents of the middle school student who caused the problem. They should be able to pay about 6.74 million yen somehow.
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