LA woman sues MoMA design shop after glass pot ‘explodes’

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From Katherine Boniello

She fell into a burning matzo fireball.

A Los Angeles woman who owned a $200 fine pot from the Museum of Modern Art’s design store was seriously injured when the glass vessel “exploded” on the stovetop, a lawsuit says.

The incident, captured on video, shows single mother Lisa Palencia pottering around in the kitchen of a California home while the contents of Massimo Castagna’s clear glass pot steam on the burner.

She grabs some potholders and starts to lift the metal handles of the pot when, without warning, the bottom gives way and the liquid sprays out, the footage shows.

Palencia, 36, can be heard screaming in pain as she jumps back from the pot. According to court documents, “boiling liquid and glass shards got onto her genitals, abdomen and legs,” leaving her with “massive burns” and permanent scars.

She is then seen standing off to the side of the kitchen, hunched over in pain and breathing heavily after the November 2021 incident, which occurred at another person’s home, according to the clip and lawsuit.

Palencia, a nanny, claims that despite numerous reviews, MoMA did not adequately warn consumers that the pot was defective and could crack – and then “quietly” removed the item from its online catalog rather than issuing a recall.

According to Palencia’s lawyer Shane Seppinni, she did not buy the weed herself but used it in the home of a family she works for.

“MoMA continues to market and sell glass cookware in a deceptive manner despite being aware of the danger that glass cookware poses to its loyal customers,” the nanny claims in her lawsuit.

She will “require six-figure reconstructive surgery due to the defective products and the negligence of MoMA,” according to court documents in which Palencia is demanding unspecified damages.

A museum spokesman said MoMA stopped selling the glass pot in 2018.

“The safety of our visitors and customers is our highest priority and we are carefully investigating the complaint,” it said in a statement.