Boy trips in museum and punches hole through painting | World news | The Guardian
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_7Q-yxLF4
A 12-year-old Taiwanese boy lived out a slapstick nightmare at the weekend when he tripped at a museum and broke his fall with a painting, smashing a hole in it.
Oops, butter fingers! I live in ultimate fear of ruining a million-pound painting
Exhibition organisers said the painting was a 350-year-old Paolo Porpora oil on canvas work called Flowers, valued at $1.5m.
Footage released by the organisers of the Face of Leonardo: Images of a Genius exhibition in Taipei shows the boy – in shorts, trainers, a blue Puma T-shirt and holding a drink – walk past the still life, catching his foot and stumbling over.
He looks up at the canvas, shown later to have a fist-sized gash at the bottom, and freezes, looking around at other people in the room.
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Museum staff and well-known restorer Tsai Shun reviewing the damage to the painting in Taipei. Photograph: TST Art of Discovery Co
The organisers will not ask the boy’s family to pay for the restoration costs, according to Focus Taiwan news. It said the exhibition organiser, Sun Chi-hsuan, said the boy was very nervous but should not be blamed and the painting, part of a private collection, was insured.
“The painting’s bottom right is damaged,” Sun later told reporters. “The boy’s hand made contact with the artwork and left a hole the size of a fist.”
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A close-up view of the puncture in the canvas. Photograph: TST Art of Discovery Co
The exhibition, which also includes portraits of Leonardo, shows 55 paintings in Taiwan “gathered from the finest art collectors in the world”, according to the organisers.
“All 55 paintings in the venue are authentic pieces and they are very rare and precious,” a post on the exhibition’s Facebook page said. “Once these works are damaged, they are permanently damaged.”
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_7Q-yxLF4
A 12-year-old Taiwanese boy lived out a slapstick nightmare at the weekend when he tripped at a museum and broke his fall with a painting, smashing a hole in it.
Oops, butter fingers! I live in ultimate fear of ruining a million-pound painting
Exhibition organisers said the painting was a 350-year-old Paolo Porpora oil on canvas work called Flowers, valued at $1.5m.
Footage released by the organisers of the Face of Leonardo: Images of a Genius exhibition in Taipei shows the boy – in shorts, trainers, a blue Puma T-shirt and holding a drink – walk past the still life, catching his foot and stumbling over.
He looks up at the canvas, shown later to have a fist-sized gash at the bottom, and freezes, looking around at other people in the room.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Museum staff and well-known restorer Tsai Shun reviewing the damage to the painting in Taipei. Photograph: TST Art of Discovery Co
The organisers will not ask the boy’s family to pay for the restoration costs, according to Focus Taiwan news. It said the exhibition organiser, Sun Chi-hsuan, said the boy was very nervous but should not be blamed and the painting, part of a private collection, was insured.
“The painting’s bottom right is damaged,” Sun later told reporters. “The boy’s hand made contact with the artwork and left a hole the size of a fist.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
A close-up view of the puncture in the canvas. Photograph: TST Art of Discovery Co
The exhibition, which also includes portraits of Leonardo, shows 55 paintings in Taiwan “gathered from the finest art collectors in the world”, according to the organisers.
“All 55 paintings in the venue are authentic pieces and they are very rare and precious,” a post on the exhibition’s Facebook page said. “Once these works are damaged, they are permanently damaged.”