We all have those nightmares. For some it’s falling through space, or failing an exam, or finding yourself naked in front of a room full of your peers.
For others, it’s the panic of realising you’ve accidentally punched a hole in a painting worth $1.5 million.
Footage released online this week by the organisers of an art exhibition in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei shows the toe-curling moment when a 12-year-old boy did just this.
The boy, who has not been named, was soaking up the atmosphere at the "Face of Leonardo: Images of a Genius exhibition, with a crowd of other culture vultures. Having just heard from the tour guide that the masterpiece in front of him, a Paolo Porpora impression of flowers, oil on canvas, was valued at a sum of $1.5 million, the crowd makes its way from one painting to the next.
The boy, wearing a pair of black shorts, follows behind his fellow arty friends, but is looking the other way as he catches his trainer-clad right foot of the painting’s modern display stand. His right hand, grasping an unidentified drink, goes into free-fall.
Realising his drink posed a serious risk to the 350-year old canvas, the boy manages to keep it upright, crisis averted, and a sigh of relief.
But as the still life propped him up, his life soon came to a standstill, as the poor guy realised his balancing fist had made its way through the bottom of the exhibit, ripping a gouge in the centuries old piece of art. He looks around the room, but this isn’t a nightmare. He’s punched a hole in a million-dollar painting. A woman comes over, she stares at the boy, and another briefly touches his shoulder, but then pulls back, for reasons unknown. After a few moments taking it in, the boy walks away.
According to Focus Taiwan News, the organisers of the exhibition don’t want the boy to blame himself for the incident, and will not be seeking payment from his family for the restoration. It said the organiser of the exhibition, Sun Chi-hsuan, said the boy was very nervous but was not to be blamed, and that the painting, part of a private collection, was insured.
The exhibition, which is made up of over 50 paintings, was closed briefly after the accident on Monday.
