Magritte’s ‘The Castle of the Pyrenees’ damaged with a Pinecone at the Israel Museum

It was an errant pinecone that punctured “The Castle of the Pyrenees,” the famed Surrealist masterpiece by René Magritte that normally hangs in the Israel Museum’s permanent collection gallery.

A young boy was visiting the museum with his family several weeks ago when he idly pierced the canvas with a pinecone he picked up in the museum’s sculpture garden.

The painting was punctured in a matter of seconds, before a guard noticed what was happening, according to the museum staff. The piece is now being repaired and restored in the museum’s conservation laboratory.

Sharon Tager, who directs the museum’s conservation laboratories department, told Ha’aretz that the restoration process will take several weeks. Tager explained that the canvas is mended and the layers of oil paint are then carefully treated to make it nearly impossible to detect that the painting was damaged.

Magritte’s painting was not glazed or protected by an alarm, as the museum wants to preserve the viewing experience and allow visitors to get as close as possible to the artworks. “The Castle of the Pyrenees,” depicting a large, castle-topped rock dangling in a blue sky over a churning sea, has hung in the Israel Museum since 1985.