A 12 year old Taiwanese boy had a bad experience over the weekend, when he tripped while inside an art exhibit and accidentally tore a fist sized hole into a 17th century painting.
The boy was not hurt since the 350 year old Paolo Porpora oil painting broke his fall, although he damaged a $1.5 million artwork, reports The Guardian. Organizers of the "Face of Leonardo: Images of a Genius" exhibition that was held in Taipei even released footage of the boy's million dollar stumble. The clip showed the 12 year old, who wore a blue Puma shirt, trainers and shorts during his art exhibit visit, walk past the painting and stumble over a rope barrier near the artwork. After the incident, he then looked up at the painting and froze, before looking around the other people in the room. Apparently, the boy braced his hands against the bottom part of the still life when he stumbled, which tore the painting.
According to Focus Taiwan, the art exhibition's organizers will not ask the boy's family to pay for the restoration costs. Sun Chi-hsuan, exhibition organizer head, said the very nervous boy should not be blamed and that the painting was insured. Sun shared that the boy was visiting the exhibition with his mother and was "probably not aware of his surroundings because he was focused on the guided tour." The exhibition head mentioned that the organizers will ask the insurance company to cover all restoration costs, as well as compensate the owner of the art piece. The 200 centimeter tall Paolo Porpora painting called "Flowers" is part of a private collection on loan to the exhibit.
The Focus Taiwan report also mentioned the exhibition curator's astonishment when she learned of the incident. According to Sun, curator Andrea Rossi was shocked when she found out about the accident. The curator will reportedly discuss the artwork's restoration with a Taiwan art restorer this week before shipping the Paolo Porpora painting back to Italy.
