A five-year-old boy has had a lucky escape after smashing a 3500-year-old ancient urn at a museum in Israel.

The rare Bronze Age artefact was on display at the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa when the accident happened on Friday.

A picture showing the smashed pieces of the ancient treasure is going viral on Reddit.

After last week’s incident, the boy and his mother apparently rushed from the museum, “scared” about the possible fallout.

But museum director Dr Inbal Rivlin wants them to return for a guided tour.

“Don’t be afraid, we have no claim against you,” she said.

But she did urge parents to warn their children ahead of visits that exhibits shouldn’t be touched unless it was explicitly stated that they could be.

The Bronze Age urn had been in the Hecht Museum for 35 years. It was discovered in a dig in Samaria, in central Israel, and was dated to between 1130 and 1500 BC.

Before (the urn circled in red) and after, in pieces on the ground. Photos: Supplied

The museum described the jar as rare and an “impressive find” as others of the same period were generally found broken or incomplete.

“It predates the days of David and King Solomon, is typical of the Canaan region and was intended for storing and transporting local consumption, mainly wine and olive oil,” it said.

Rivlin said the jar wasn’t in a display case because the museum’s founder, Dr Reuben Hecht, wanted archaeological items to be as accessible as possible to visitors.

The museum said its artefacts were rarely damaged. The urn will be repaired and then put back on display.

The Hecht Museum is in the grounds of the University of Haifa. It is free to enter and has numerous archaeological exhibits from the Chalcolithic to Byzantine periods.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by מוזיאון הכט (@hechtmus)

The incident in Israel follows a similar case in Kansas in 2018, when parents of a five-year-old boy were hit with a $US132,000 ($196,000) bill after he knocked over an art sculpture at a local community centre.

Video captured Troy Goodman reaching for the Aphrodite di Kansas City sculpture at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Centre in Overland Park, before it toppled.

Days later, the Goodmans received a bill from the centre’s insurance company.

“I was surprised, absolutely, more so offended to be called negligent,” Troy’s mother Sarah Goodman said.

“They were treating this like a crime scene.”

Artist Bill Lyons told America’s ABC News at the time it took him two years to create the work.

“It’s beyond my capabilities and desires to rebuild it,” he said.

City officials said it had been fixed to its pedestal with clips rather than being “permanently attached” because it wasn’t “an interactive piece”.

“We’ve had other pieces there [and] we’ve not had problems,” spokesman Sean Reilly said.

“We’ve not had this situation … we’ve not had kids climb on our pieces.”

Troy’s family eventually settled the bill for $US107,000.