Crane Topples Onto Dallas Museum of Art

A truck-mounted crane fell backward onto the roof of the Dallas Museum of Art Friday morning, injuring the crane operator and narrowly missing sculptor Mark di Suvero's red "Ave" steel sculpture in the garden.

Jennifer Caveness was working across the street, happened to look out the window, and saw it come topple over.

“I could not have seen that coming,” said Caveness.

The crane came to rest on top of the museum, damaging part of the roof. The crane left the truck with only the back of the vehicle touching the ground as the cab of the truck faced skyward at 45 degrees.

The crane operator was injured in the incident and hospitalized in an unknown condition, according to Dallas Museum of Art Operations Manager John Young. 

Young said the tent was being installed for Art Ball 50, on April11, and was to take about a week to build.

Crane Topples Onto Dallas Museum of Art

Though the south end of the museum is closed due to the incident, the Dallas Museum of Art remains open to guests.

Jill Bernstein, director of communications for the museum, said no works of art were damaged, though the museum's primary concern is for the well-being of the injured crane operator.

A truck-mounted crane fell backward onto the roof of the Dallas Museum of Art Friday morning, injuring the crane operator and narrowly missing sculptor Mark di Suvero’s red “Ave” steel sculpture in the garden.

The companies involved in the incident are Crocker Crane and McIntire Crane, according to Juan Rodriquez of the U.S. Department of Labor. 

There is no immediate word on what caused the crane to topple. OSHA is now investigating.

“Cranes are working at a very high level, lifting in this case an armature of the tent, and apparently they hadn’t sufficiently calculated what is necessary for that,” said Maxwell Anderson, the director of the Dallas Museum of Art

NBC 5's Julie Fine contributed to this report

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