1-million dollar mistake caught on camera

A 12-year-old boy accidentally punched a hole through a $1.5 million centuries-old Italian oil painting at the weekend when he tripped and fell into the piece during an exhibition in Taiwan.  

The painting, entitled "Flowers" by Italian artist Paolo Porpora, dates back to the 1600s and is part of a collection of 55 artworks on show in the country's capital.

The painting was restored on site on Monday and is now back on exhibition.

Video footage released by the organisers shows the boy trip over a platform in front of the artwork and then brace himself against the painting to break his fall. He then looks around helplessly before walking away. 

See footage of the accident below. 

"The child fell and pressed onto the painting, putting a fist-sized tear in it," an employee at TST Art of Discovery, which organised The Face of Leonardo exhibition in Taipei, said. 

Reprots say the organisers will not seek damages from the boy's family. 

The exhibition's website says a self-portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci worth 200 million euros ($231-million) is also being exhibited at the show.

Meanwhile, a British man smashed a set of 300-year-old Chinese vases after tripping over his shoelaces at a museum in Cambridge in 2006 .

Las Vegas gaming tycoon Steve Wynn that same year accidentally poked his elbow through the canvas of a Picasso painting he had just sold for $139-million.