Video shows shocking moment 12-year-old trips and punches hole in $1.5 million 17th century painting
A video showing the shocking moment a 12-year-old trips and punches a hole in a $1.5 million 17th century painting has gone viral.
It's the kind of thing that would would randomly haunt you at 2.00am, isn't it?
To make matters worse for the poor kid - who likely wants to forget the whole thing ever happened - the ordeal was caught on camera, and has recently resurfaced on social media.
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The unfortunate boy, who hails from Taiwan, was visiting The Face of Leonardo Images of a Genius exhibition in Taipei back in 2015 when he accidentally ripped a hole into a 350-year-old painting by Baroque artist Paolo Porpora. Yikes.
And if the boy wanted to ever forget about the mortifying experience of damaging something so expensive, he basically had no chance due to the fact the whole mishap was forever immortalized on video.
The viral video shows the boy tripping over a rope barrier and trying to catch his balance on the ancient painting that is known as 'Flowers'.
As a result of his balancing act, the boy accidentally launched a fist into the painting, causing quite a bit of damage in the process.
As a result of the incident, the exhibition was temporarily closed, with an 80-centimeter distance enforced between each painting and visitor.
Perhaps for the best, eh?
CNA reported at the time that the boy was told he was not to blame for the damage while his family wasn't charged for the cost of the restoration.
Instead, an insurance company covered restoration costs and compensate the owner of the painting.
That's something, at least.
A post from the event organizers on Facebook said: "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."
The original video has recently been posted to the Historic Vids X account, leading to many watching the shocking moment for the first time.
Users have since flocked to the comments section to give their reactions.
"For something that expensive…. I was expecting a little more security than just a small rope," one person asked.
While others could quite frankly not believe what they were seeing.
Poor guy.
Callum Jones