Pablo Picasso’s “The Actor” painting which depicts a gaunt male figure in a dusty pink costume was gouged on Friday, January 25 2010 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when a museumgoer fell into the artwork that left a six-inch gash. Donated by the automobile heiress, Thelma Froy and daughter of Walter P. Chrysler to the museum in 1952, this painting is one of the early works of Pablo Picasso in the museum collection and an important work in the artist’s oeuvre as it signals his shift from his early Blue Period to his Rose Period.
Reports said that an unidentified woman attending a museum class “lost her balance” and crashed into the artwork. “The woman was not injured,” said Elyse Topalian, a museum spokeswoman. “But the painting received a vertical tear in the lower right hand corner.” “The Actor” was worth about $130 million, according to a New York art dealer.
“The Actor” has been removed from the gallery and was taken to the museum’s conservation studio for “assessment and treatment,” the statement said. Because the tear occurred in the lower portion of the canvas, the repair is expected to be “unobtrusive,” according to the museum.
