This past Sunday, at Taipei’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park a 12 year-old boy tripped and punched a hole in a Paolo Porpora painting valued at $1.5 million. The boy was with a tour group visiting the exhibition The Face of Leonardo, Images of a Genius which is 55 paintings by from the Italian Renaissance and up to the 20th century. It was all captured by CCTV.
* First the teenager is holding a soft drink, admiring the Baroque masterpiece with the rest of the group
* As he follows the group towards the next artwork, the boy looks away for a second
* He then loses his balance as he bumps against the platform and rope which are meant to protect the artwork
* He hits the paintings as he falls, smashing the his cup against it
* The boy he looks at the painting and at his cold drink in disbelief for a moment. He looks terrified
* 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. Andrea Rossi, curator of the exhibition, has said that the museum won’t ask the family of the boy to pay for the restoration. The painting is insured. (Otherwise, there’s goes college!) Rossi is considering shipping the 350-year-old masterpiece back to Italy so it can be restored there. TST Art of Discovery, co-organizer of the exhibition, posted this on Facebook;
“All 55 paintings in the venue are authentic pieces and they are very rare and precious. Once these works are damaged, they are permanently damaged… We hope that everyone can protect these precious artworks with us.”
(via ArtNews)
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