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All Elbows and Knees Kid Tears Up Million Dollar Painting

Don’t try out for the football team, kid. One 12-year old Taiwanese kid absentmindedly tripped over his own feet and fell over into a $1.5m painting. He braced his fall like a genius by putting his hands up and punching a hole into the painting.

He was also husky and holding a big cup of soda, if that matters.

Luckily, he didn’t fall. Unluckily, he will likely be blacklisted from every art exhibit to ever take place in the world. There’ll be a large picture of his chubby face in front of every entrance. “Do you look like this kid? Admission denied!”

It happened at an exhibition in Taiwan. The video shows the kid looking in the other direction, likely paying attention to the tour. He then bumps into the platform and ropes that surround the 350-year old painting. After that, he looks up nervously, probably in shock, probably also wondering how strong his powers of invisibility are.

According to Sun Chi-hsuan, the head of exhibition co-organizer TST Art of Discovery Co, the 200-centimeter tall painting is around 350 years old and valued at over NT$50 million (US$1.5 million).

The oil on canvas painting was entitled “Flowers” by Paolo Porpora. Some people are saying it “might in fact be a painting from another 17th-century Italian painter, Mario Nuzzi, valued only at about €30,000”. That’s roughly $35,000 US dollars. Sun dismissed that idea.

No matter the amount, the organizers have declined to seek damages against the kid and his family.

The 12-year-old boy may have gotten lucky, however, because the organizers will not ask the boy’s family to pay for the cost of restoring the damaged painting, displayed as part of “The Face of Leonardo, Images of a Genius” exhibition at Huashan 1914 Creative Park.

Once they said that, a hundred kids raised up their index fingers and said, “So I can do this?” and started jabbing the paintings willy-nilly.

Sun said the organizers will ask the insurance company to cover restoration costs and compensate the owner of the painting.

It is the first time that a valuable painting on loan in Taiwan has suffered such major damage.

As a result, Taiwan museums will now require visitors to demonstrate, before entering the museum, the ability to walk in a straight line and look right and left.

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