Shannon Goodman’s five-year-old son knocked the sculpture and destroyed the expensive piece on May 19.
The high-cost piece was displayed at a community center in Kansas City.
Sarah Goodman was hit with a $132,000 fine when her son knocked over a sculpture called Aphrodite di Kansas City, displayed at Overland Park community center in Kansas City, Kansas.
It all started on May 18 when the family attended a wedding reception at Tomahawk Ridge Community Center in Overland Park, according to The Kansas City Star.
The mother of a child refused to take the blame for a loss done by her five-year-old son who destroyed an expensive piece of art and she has been slammed by This Morning viewers.
Surveillance footage showed Troy playing with the statue, wrap his arms around it and pulling the statue towards him while his mother Shannon Goodman and other ladies chatted on sofas nearby.
Video footage observed by PEOPLE showed two boys playing in a room around the statue, titled “Aphrodite di Kansas City,” on a stand against a wall and one of the boys walks over to the statue and becomes visible to attempt to lift it off its platform. Soon, the art topples onto the ground and the boys can be seen running out of the room.
“We are sorry it happened,” Sarah Goodman tells PEOPLE. “It’s an unfortunate accident with a big price tag.”
“It’s ruining me as a mom,” she tells PEOPLE. “I have been called (anonymously) and told threats on my life in the form of, ‘You should die,’ more than I can repeat or want to remember. What I care about is my son, not me. I’m fine. I just don’t want this hatred towards a 5-year-old child.”
Talking on ITV’s This Morning, Goodman said that other artworks were kept secure and it was only that sculpture that wasn’t behind glass or rope.
Goodman says the family has faced an onslaught of “cyberbullying” as a result of her son’s mistake.
Viewers didn’t accept her arguments and said she should have kept control of her son better.
One tweeted: “100% she should pay the fine, should be keeping control of her kid.”
“Supervise your OWN child at all times!!” another posted.
A third wrote: “This mug should have been watching that kid. She’s trying to make out like they aren’t at fault.”
A fourth agreed: “Sorry but she should have had eyes on her small child. How did she not notice him touching that! Always someone else’s fault.”
The artist Bill Lyons wants to be reimbursed for the money he says he has lost because he can’t sell it. He estimated its worth to be $132,000.
Lyons had loaned the sculpture to the city of Overland Park to put on display. It was the city’s representatives who contacted Goodman asking for her to pay.