The Actor was painted in 1904/05 by Picasso and is worth an estimated £80 million, but that didn’t stop an idiot art student from taring it as she slipped at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Painted at the end of Picasso’s Blue Period and believed to herald the beginning of his Rose Period, The Actor was also the first of his paintings to bring to life his obsession with the circus and the stage.
The student, on an adult education class, sat appreciating all of this, but apparently stumbled standing up and crashed into the painting. Despite the fact that the anonymous woman protested that it was an accident, I can’t help but feel that she could have done more to mitigate the slip-up.
Maybe if she’d been more careful, or if she had worn shoes with better grip, she might not have fallen in the first place the dozy cah. However, I reckon it’s in the fall that she’s most to blame. Put yourself in her shoes. You’ve tripped and you’re falling into a stunning piece of art, do you put your hands up to protect your face and tare the painting, or do you just take the hit. From my point of view I reckon she should have done a salmon and got a bump on the heed. It would have made a much better story for her to tell the grandkids. Now all she has is “granny was an idiot”.
