Tourist falls in Rome's Borghese Gallery and damages Guido Reni painting

Rome museum experts on Thursday were assessing the damage caused to a painting by Baroque master Guido Reni after a visitor to Galleria Borghese fell against the 17th-century canvas. The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when the tourist, described in Italian news reports as an elderly American woman, fell onto Reni's painting of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
 
Galleria Borghese said in a statement that the visitor "collapsed suddenly, probably due to an illness", causing a "slight superficial laceration" to the painting which was "cordoned off promptly". The large-scale work, which dates to 1610 and belongs to the city of Rome, suffered a three-centimetre tear close to the frame in the lower section of the canvas, the statement said.