A 12-year-old boy tripped and punched a hole in a valuable painting at a Taipei exhibition, with CCTV footage capturing the moment he tries to catch his balance by grabbing onto the artwork.

The 350-year-old Paolo Porpora painting, on display at the ‘The Face of Leonardo, Images of a Genius’ exhibition, is privately owned. On loan to the gallery, the two-metre tall work is valued at almost €1.3m.

In the footage, the 12-year-old can be seen tripping over a post from which the rope barrier separating visitors from the painting is draped. As he falls towards the ‘Flowers’ painting, the boy reaches out to break his fall, punching a fist-sized hole into the canvas.

Paolo Porpora's 'Flowers' [Wiki Commons]

But the boy and his family have caught a lucky break, as the exhibition curator, Andrea Rossi, says that they will not be asked to foot the bill for restoring the work; the Porpora painting is insured, and a claim has been filed with the insurers to cover the cost of repairing it, and to compensate its owner.

You can watch the footage of the boy damaging the painting below: