A man who punched a hole through an £8million Claude Monet painting has been jailed for six years and banned from all galleries - despite claiming he collapsed onto it due to a heart condition.

Andrew Shannon strolled calmly into the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin before attacking the 1874 work "Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sail Boat," which was left needing two years of repairs.

The 49-year-old, who later underwent a quadruple heart bypass, denied deliberately tearing the painting and told police he had felt dizzy and lost his balance.