Kid trips in museum, destroys 350-year-old Baroque painting


You know that feeling when you go to a museum and you're like, "I really hope while I'm here today I don't accidentally trip and destroy a priceless work of art?" Well, this video will likely make you even more paranoid.
Yes, a 12-year-old boy visiting an exhibition of the Italian Baroque painter Paolo Porpora on display in Taipei was minding his own business when — whoops!
It's worse than it looks. He punched a hole right through the canvas of Porpora's "Flowers" — worth $1.5 million.
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"Once these works are damaged, they are permanently damaged," a post on the exhibition's Facebook page said (or, rather, scolded). Still, the organizers of the exhibition aren't going to ask the boy's family to cover the costs; thankfully, the painting was insured. However, that likely won't stop moms worldwide from showing this video to their kids and chiding, "See what I mean about watching where you're going?"
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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