Episode 2 of 2

Smashing of the Portland Vase

Name: Smashing of the Portland Vase
Start: 1845-02-07
Location: British Museum

When: 7 February 1845
Where: British Museum
Part of: A drunken visitor smashes the Portland Vase in the British Museum

William Lloyd shattered the Portland Vase by throwing a sculpture onto its display case at the British Museum.

At 3:45 p.m. on 7 February 1845, William Lloyd, who had been drinking for the previous week, threw a nearby sculpture on top of the case containing the Portland Vase. This action smashed both the sculpture and the vase, causing significant damage to the Roman cameo glass artifact.

Sources

Portland Vase Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-13

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.