Art World
Boy Accidentally Punches Hole Through $1.5 Million Baroque Painting
The moment when the 12-year-old boy punches the painting was recorded by CCTV
Photo: via YouTube
Photo: via YouTube
A 12-year-old boy had the worst museum visit ever this past Sunday, at Taipei's Huashan 1914 Creative Park. The boy tripped and punched a Paolo Porpora painting valued at $1.5 million as he was trying to keep his balance.
According to Focus Taiwan, the boy was with a guided tour group visiting the exhibition "The Face of Leonardo, Images of a Genius," which gathers 55 paintings by key artists starting from the Italian Renaissance and going up to the 20th century.
The unfortunate incident was captured by CCTV
and the footage first shows the teenager, who is holding a soft drink,
admiring the Baroque masterpiece with the rest of the group.
Then, as he follows the group
towards the next artwork, the boy looks momentarily back to something or
someone outside the camera, loses his balance as he bumps against the
platform and rope which are meant to protect the artwork, and hits the
paintings as he falls, smashing the beverage container against it.
The boy is immediately aware of what had just
happened; he looks at the painting and at his cold drink in disbelief
for a moment, and you can almost see the blood draining from his face.
His supervisor rushes over and, after putting a hand on the kid's
shoulder, leaves to look for a museum official.
Porpora's Flowers got a fist-sized
hole as result of the impact. However, Andrea Rossi, curator of the
exhibition, has declared that they won't ask the family of the boy to
pay for the restoration and that the painting is insured (phew).
Rossi has discussed the restoration process
with a Taiwanese art restorer but is also considering shipping the
350-year-old masterpiece back to Italy so it can be restored there.
Meanwhile, the exhibition was temporarily closed on Monday morning, but it reopened in the afternoon.
"All 55 paintings in the venue are authentic
pieces and they are very rare and precious," TST Art of Discovery,
co-organizer of the exhibition, posted on the exhibition's official Facebook page.
“Once these works are damaged, they are permanently damaged … We hope
that everyone can protect these precious artworks with us."
It could probably take a while before the traumatized boy would visit a museum again.
