Unbroken Art and Breaking a Story : No Damage Reported to Any of Fragile Works on Display at County’s Major Museums

Thursday’s earthquake caused no damage at Orange County’s major museums, even though they are exhibiting especially fragile works--British sculpture at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, ceramic and glass pieces at the Laguna Art Museum and pueblo pottery at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

And one of the county’s locally most famous sculptures, “The Firebird” which spreads its wings above the entrance to the Orange County Performing Arts Center, was also “nice and steady,” Center representative Ria Carlson said.

Betsy Severance, the registrar of art works at Newport Harbor, said she came to work worried that some of the 58 pieces in the show “British Sculpture Since 1965: A Quiet Revolution” may have broken, but a quick check showed no damage. At Laguna, “Nothing even fell over,” said registrar Sue Winter. Of 300 pieces in a crafts show on display, 75 are ceramic and 75 glass,and none was damaged

“Very fortunately nothing was broken here,” said Steve Hansen, spokesman for the Bowers Museum, where 25 pieces of pueblo ceramic pottery are on show.