<div><p>A significant Pablo Picasso painting was damaged after a woman attending art class lost her balance, fell into "The Actor" and tore it, The Metropolitan Museum of Art said.</p><p>The unusually large canvas, measuring 77.25 by 45.38 inches (196 by 115 centimeters), sustained a vertical tear of about six inches (15 centimeters) in the lower right-hand corner in the accident on Friday.</p><p>The museum, located on the eastern edge of New York's Central Park, did not elaborate on why the woman fell.</p><p>But The Met said the damage did not impact the "focal point of the composition" and that it should be repaired in the coming weeks ahead of a major Picasso retrospective featuring some 250 works at the museum opening on April 27.</p><p>Repair work should be "unobtrusive," it added.</p><p>Painted in the winter of 1904-1905, the work hails from Picasso's critical Rose Period, when the artist shifted from the downbeat tones of his Blue Period to warmer, more romantic hues.</p><p>The period also hints at Picasso's later embrace of abstraction with his signature cubist style.</p><p>Donated to The Met by automobile heiress Thelma Chrysler Foy in 1952, "The Actor" features an acrobat striking a dramatic pose against an abstract backdrop. It was painted on a used canvas that already contained a painting.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67746738&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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