Norwegian woman sues MoMA PS1 after injury from falling panel

A Norwegian woman has filed a lawsuit against the Museum of Modern Art in New York after she was allegedly injured by a falling panel while visiting its MoMA PS1 site.

The woman, Andrea Kroksnes, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, according to a complaint obtained by Urgent Matter.

The complaint did not specify Kroksnes’ occupation, but the website for the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo lists a person by the same name as a senior curator. It was not immediately clear if they are the same person. Urgent Matter has reached out to an email address for the curator at the Nasjonalmuseet for confirmation.

Court documents show she is seeking monetary damages exceeding $150,000, along with additional relief as determined by the court, for physical injury including an acute concussion and chronic post-concussion syndrome that left her with a permanent disability, pain and suffering and mental anguish.

“MOMA had a duty to exercise reasonable care in supervising and overseeing MOMA PS1’s operations to ensure that exhibitions, installations, and fixtures were safe for visitors,” her lawyers wrote in court documents obtained by Urgent Matter.

“MOMA breached this duty by failing to establish, implement, enforce, or supervise adequate safety protocols regarding the secure installation, inspection, and monitoring of heavy wall-mounted exhibition components, including the panel that fell and struck [her].”

Kroksnes alleges in court documents that she visited MoMA PS1 in October 2022 to view its “Jumana Manna: Middle Ghost” exhibition and was sitting on a sofa in a screening room within the museum when a “large, heavy wall-mounted panel” fell on her.

The panel had been installed as part of the exhibition and was located directly behind the sofa provided for visitor use. Her lawyers said the museum should have known that visitors “would rest, lean, or make contact with surrounding walls or fixtures.”

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