First the story that many of us have heard before: When the then 81-year-old lady Cecilia Giménez set out on an attempt to restore the 19th century painting Ecce Homo depicting Jesus that was in her local church Santuario de Nuestra Senora de Misericordia in Spain, it was "not completely fine.

That the result would become one of the internet's foremost snacks and the "refreshment" a far-reaching world-famous event, was certainly not her intention.

Scrubbed off paint

In 2011, a sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger was lent to the Ostwall Museum in Dortsmund, Germany.

During a cleaning round, a cleaner missed the boundary to the work and scrubbed away a stain.

The only problem was that of course it was not an unintentional stain - but rather a highly intentional ditto.

The work entitled "When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling" - consisted of a wooden installation on top of a vessel whose bottom was sprayed with paint to resemble dried rainwater.

The plant was insured for just over 9 million Swedish kronor.

"It is now impossible to restore the work to its original condition," a spokesman for the museum told The Guardian after the incident.

"When it Starts Dripping from the Ceiling" by Martin Kippenberger Photo: Mike Siepmann / TT

Tossed the work in the trash

Some others who were quick on the ball regarding order and order were the staff at Sotheby's in London who happened to throw a self-portrait of the artist Lucien Freud with a value of about 1 million kroner in the garbage.

The wooden box in which the painting was packed was mistaken for empty and thrown away.

To top it all off in a machine that crushed it.

The painting on the right is not the self-portrait of the artist Lucian Freud that was thrown away in 2000 but another called "Self Portrait Refection" Photo: TT

Stumbled upon the exhibit

Keep the shoelaces tied, your hands on your back and your eyes fixed on the surroundings: Otherwise you risk becoming like the man in Cambridge who smashed a collection of 300-year-old Chinese vases.

Or why not like the 12-year-old boy who in 2015 at an exhibition in Taipei stumbled in front of the 350-year-old oil painting Flowers by Paolo Porpora.

In the case, he - as is often done in the event of tripping - received himself with his hand and later drove his fist straight through the canvas.

The Italian 17th century painting was valued at around SEK 13 million.

Photo: TT

With loving reference

To classify the squint-eyed lion at Gripsholm's castle for a failed restoration or an art mistake may be bordering on a touch of irregularities.

But in a loving spirit, we still want him to be there. 

The century was 18th century and somehow a lion's skin had ended up at the Swedish court with King Fredrik I at the helm.

In other words, the lion - which now goes by the name Leo - was at that time more of a carpet rather than a majestically sized 3D animal.

An idea to recreate him in his true form arises and a conservator assumes the assignment.

A conservator who, unsurprisingly, has never seen these animals for real.