When I'm having a bad day, I'm glad I'm not alone. At the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge England, a loose shoelace, a lack of handrails and a marble wall conspired to give one ill-fated patron an Inspector Clousseau moment while bringing a shattering conclusion to the earthly pilgrimage of three Qing dynasty vases.
Mr. Flynn's misadventure began when he ascended the wrong staircase, pivoted, and tripped on an untied shoelace. "I couldn't stop myself," he said. Hurtling towards the vases, which had been displayed on the windowsill since the 1940s, he hit the first one, which he later said hit...
