--- title: Watch This Kid Punch a Hole In a Painting Worth Over $1.5 Million description: A 12-year-old boy accidentally stumbled and left a hole in a 17th century Italian masterpiece on show in Taiwan canonical: https://time.com/4009403/taiwan-boy-art-stumble-paolo-porpora/ author: Joanna Plucinska article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-25T07:48:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:47.962Z og:title: Watch This Kid Damage a Masterpiece Worth Over $1.5 Million og:description: It's every curator's worst fear og:url: https://time.com/4009403/taiwan-boy-art-stumble-paolo-porpora/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae16d29107d1c921/698860b55f570f5e05b1d10d/screen-shot-2015-08-25-at-3-38-33-pm.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2015-08-25 at 3.38.33 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch This Kid Damage a Masterpiece Worth Over $1.5 Million twitter:description: It's every curator's worst fear twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae16d29107d1c921/698860b55f570f5e05b1d10d/screen-shot-2015-08-25-at-3-38-33-pm.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch This Kid Fall Into a Piece of Art Worth Over $1.5 Million and Put a Hole in It by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Aug 25, 2015 7:48 AM UTC  by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Aug 25, 2015 7:48 AM UTC Every curator’s worst fear came true Saturday for the stewards of an exhibition of Italian masterpieces in Taiwan, when a visitor stumbled and accidentally punched a hole in one of the paintings. The exhibit in this case was the 17th century oil painting _Flowers_ by Italian master Paolo Porpora (1617–1673). It is, [according](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/25/boy-trips-in-museum-and-punches-hole-through-million-dollar-painting) to the _Guardian_, which cited a database of European art, the only one of Porpora’s works that is signed. Taiwan’s official Central News Agency (CNA) [reported](http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aedu/201508240015.aspx) that the work was valued at over $1.5 million. It was damaged when a 12-year-old boy, strolling through the exhibition being held in the capital Taipei, lost his footing right in front of the work, CNA says. In a video posted to YouTube by the agency, boy is then seen stumbling over a barrier and accidentally punching his hand through the canvas. He gets up, sheepishly looks up at the damage and then turns around to see the presumably horrified reactions of passersby. The boy’s family will not have to pay the restoration costs, as the painting was already insured, but organizers fear the damage is permanent. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4009403/taiwan-boy-art-stumble-paolo-porpora/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4009403/taiwan-boy-art-stumble-paolo-porpora/"},"headline":"Watch This Kid Fall Into a Piece of Art Worth Over $1.5 Million and Put a Hole in It","datePublished":"2015-08-25T07:48:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:47.962Z","description":"Oops","url":"https://time.com/4009403/taiwan-boy-art-stumble-paolo-porpora/","keywords":["Newsfeed","video","Taiwan","Fine Art"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae16d29107d1c921/698860b55f570f5e05b1d10d/screen-shot-2015-08-25-at-3-38-33-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joanna Plucinska","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae16d29107d1c921/698860b55f570f5e05b1d10d/screen-shot-2015-08-25-at-3-38-33-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2015-08-25 at 3.38.33 PM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4009403/taiwan-boy-art-stumble-paolo-porpora/","name":"Watch This Kid Fall Into a Piece of Art Worth Over $1.5 Million and Put a Hole in It"}}]}] ```