Story highlights Boy, 12, slips and falls into valuable painting at Taipei art gallery, tearing a hole in the canvas

"Flowers" by Italian artist Paolo Porpora is worth an estimated $1.5 million

Experts at gallery are restoring artwork; boy and his family won't have to pay for repairs

(CNN) It's enough to cause curators to break out in cold sweats: the sight of a museum visitor tumbling right into a valuable, centuries-old painting at a busy exhibition.

A Taiwanese schoolboy, 12, did just that on a visit to a Leonardo da Vinci-themed show in Taipei, tripping up while admiring the exhibits.

When he put out his hand to steady himself, he tore a hole "the size of a fist" in a $1.5 million artwork.

"The boy was probably too concentrated in listening to what the guide was saying, and therefore stumbled," said Sun Chi-hsuan, one of the exhibition's organizers.

The incident, at Taipei's Huashan 1914 creative arts center, was captured on closed-circuit television footage from inside the gallery.

"Flowers" by Paolo Porpora

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