WASHINGTON — If you’ve ever been in an art museum, as a docent, curator or just a patron, this is your nightmare: A 12-year-old boy at an art exhibit in Taiwan stumbled over a platform, reached out his hand to break his fall — and put it through a 350-year-old painting valued at $1.5 million.
It happened over the weekend in Taipei and the painting was “Flowers and Crystal Cup,” by Paolo Porpora. Taiwan’s Central News Agency reports that Andrea Rossi, the curator of the exhibition would talk with Taiwanese restorers about whether it could be restored before it would be shipped back to Italy.
Rossi added that the painting was insured, and that the boy and his family wouldn’t be asked to pay for the damage. Exhibit organizer Sun Chi-hsuan says the boy was very nervous. Even with his face blurred out, the video makes that pretty clear:
h/t TIME
