A woman who was taking an art class at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has accidentally fallen into a $130million Picasso painting and damaged it.

The painting called The Actor sustained a vertical tear of about six inches (15cm) in the lower right-hand corner.

The woman was attending an adult education class last week when she lost her balance and fell against The Actor, damaging the lower right corner.

Immediately after the accident on Friday, the painting was taken to the Metropolitan’s conservation studio for repair.

“Fortunately, the damage did not occur in a focal point of the composition, and the curatorial and conservation staffs fully expect that the repair, which will take place in the coming weeks, will be unobtrusive,” the museum said.

The Actor, painted in the winter of 1904-05, marks Picasso’s shift from his Blue Period, of images of tattered beggars and blind musicians, to his Rose Period of paintings of costumed acrobats.

The artwork is nearly 6 feet by 4 feet, and depicts a standing acrobat in a pink costume and blue knee-high boots striking a pose against an abstracted backdrop.

Source: BBC