Things on the coffee table are there for everyone to touch. You don't get to make special rules.

Put it elsewhere.

Sadly this is something society does not teach us men. We are hardly ever taught how to properly treat art. I recommend put it somewhere we won't be able to touch it. Else the typical male will think it's jist a bowl or a key holder or worse an ash yray

Seeing how my name is Art, I must be a expert.
Art is made to touch, and not touch. (not me)
Some types of art, are meant to be handled.
But,,,,,ask first!

A very nice work of sculpting, deserves to be admired BUT not touched in my opinion.

Try teaching. Students automatically assume they have the right to turn on the gas or water faucets in chem lab, play with equipment without being given permission or cleared. Its almost automatic, especially in male students.

Recommend barbed wire. Unless you think it would ruin the aesthetic qualities of the art, in which case I would use a glass display case.

Buy a glass cabinet and lock it in it.

Surrender, Dorothy! And put a damn sign by it. You are waaay overthinking a very simple problem, Dear Hiker.

Have you considered hanging it from the ceiling?

beautiful piece

Fill it with cashews. Or maybe a sour cream based dip!

I agree you need to protect it by encasing it in a plexiglass box. The put a little lock on it. Most men do not have the education to know this is art compared to just a piece of bric a brac.

Well written piece...I say, Make those guys read it...
Personally, I don't touch art, and it disgusts me when people do defile art, like sitting on a giant shoe thinking it's a chair or picking up an obviously handmade piece and hefting it around..... one should ask first before touching....or is this not linked obvious to most people.....

They are not " awoke" and don't know it's fine art.

Sorry, but as an artistic piece, it virtually asked to be examined and enjoyed from different perspectives. Don't display in the open it if you don't want people to touch it.

Put it in a locked case

It is gorgeous and I would want to “see” it with my hands. I love wood and it is hard to resist touching it. Yep, I probably would have been in your doghouse

Men tend to be very pragmatic and functional and linear. Most of us would say, how am I supposed to know this thing is not to be touched if you don't say so? My default assumption is that it's an ash tray (I just said that to mess with ya; I don't even smoke).

Speaking only for myself, when entering someone else's home, I assume everything is valuable AND breakable until I figure out the territory. I don't put my feet up on the ottoman even though that's precisely what it's for and exactly how I use mine, until I'm sure the inhabitant shares that sentiment.

My wife is an interesting mix in this regard. She doesn't keep a perfectly immaculate house, but has less tolerance for clutter and then cleans it up less thoroughly than I would if it were left alone long enough to trigger me to clean. She doesn't give a fig about how long the grass is or how perfect the weeding is, which was a little deflating at first because it's what I know how to keep up to snuff and I was hoping for a little bit of credit concerning that. Now, in an ironic twist, I'm under doctor's orders not to shovel snow, and my wife doesn't do anywhere near as thorough a job as I would, as often as I would. But unlike most women in my experience and observation, I accept that those are MY standards, and if I can't do the work myself, I have to accept what other family members are willing to do.

It's the same with my stepson, he doesn't put stuff in the dishwasher as regularly or consistently as I would like, but that's MY issue and if I don't like it, I can put it away, right? I mean, a lot of the stuff we get upset about in that regard is just a demand that everyone else read our minds and care about the same things in the same way at the same time as we would. My stepson is not lazy, he cooks for us sometimes, he (eventually) does all his own laundry, and when he has a wild hair, he deep-cleans the house more thoroughly than I do, so why do I want to waste energy trying to get him to load the dishwasher "the Mordant Way"?

Applying that here, if you need the bowl to be admired from afar or handled with kid gloves if at all, then it needs to be in a less innocuous and accessible place, or you need to be well off enough to have a gallery room to display your valuable art. Living rooms are for living in.

OK, so in defense of the "uncouth" .... you have a flat surface. On that surface you have an object that looks like an ornamental bowl. How does that NOT say, "Put stuff HERE!!"??

I would advise filling the bowl with something that should not be disturbed further, like maybe a miniature Zen garden, colorful beads or marbles, wrapped candy, even a candle (though some unfortunate may actually use it as a candle holder <gasp>.

Alternatively, putting the item on a shelf clearly meant for display purposes could also help.

Sorry if I seem unsympathetic, it's because I am. I've come to respect living creatures more than "things". I for one do not want to live in a museum. If an item is that precious to you, it should be put where it is not likely to be touched or used. It should not be in the path of living creatures as a sort of "booby trap".

how about a sign with funny way of saying do not touch?

"Yes I am a duck, but I'm not your duck, so please don't touch" or something else you like? Your good with words, ....

Years ago I had a retail store with water fountains. It was usually men and children who would put their fingers where the water came out, causing it to squirt all over. I put up signs asking people to please not touch/play with the fountains. Even this didn't fully prevent it. One time I witnessed a young girl tell her dad, as he was moving to impede the water flow, that he wasn't supposed to do that. It was frustrating, to say the least.

I’d like to think I’d have the sense not to, especially if nothing else in the context of the table seems to be functionally in use as a receptacle or place for drinks, but the thing that makes me want to instinctually touch it is the beautifully intricate texture on the wings. I love wood carvings. Who throws their change into someone else’s bowl, even if that’s obviously what the home owner is using it for though? That’s pretty strange unless it’s your child’s piggy bank or someone’s donation jar.

Not sure what you will do, but it is a beautiful piece. I like how simple it is,but still captures motion.

Place it in a less easily accessible location... or invite a better class of men to your home.

Before I read where you said you were putting up a sign, I was going to say put a velvet rope around it. That would send a clear message.