Vandalism of art
Encyclopedia
Vandalism of art refers to intentional damage of an artwork (for unintentional damage see accidental damage of art
). The object is usually exhibited in public, becomes damaged as a result of the act, and remains in place right after the act. This may distinguish it from art destruction
and iconoclasm
, where it may be wholly destroyed and removed, and art theft
, or looting
.
Numerous acts of vandalism against art exhibits are known and some objects, such as Mona Lisa
, Night Watch
and The Little Mermaid
, have been intentionally damaged several times. Many vandals were diagnosed with a mental disorder and some, such as Hans-Joachim Bohlmann
, had a history of attacking artworks. A vast amount of damage consists of leaving a minor scratch, a stuck chewing gum, a pencil mark and so on, and usually escapes publicity. More visible acts of vandalism were premeditated, as the tool of destruction a knife, paint, acid or hammer was intentionally brought to the scene. In most cases, the artworks were restored. Restorations were costly and time consuming and in many cases were followed by shielding the artwork from future attacks.
, bishop of Blois
, to describe the destruction of artwork following the French Revolution
. The term originated from the invasion of Rome in 455 by the East Germanic tribe of Vandals
, which resulted in destruction of numerous artworks, and was quickly adopted across Europe.
(1937–2009) was a German serial vandal. Between 1977 and 2006, he damaged over 50 paintings worth more than 270 million Deutsche Marks (about 138 million euros) by such artists as Rubens, Rembrandt and Dürer
. Bohlmann had a personality disorder
and was treated in various psychiatric hospitals since a young age. In most acts, he sprayed paintings with sulfuric acid
, targeting faces of the personages.
by Leonardo da Vinci has long been attracting vandals and is currently one of the best-protected artworks. In 1956, the lower part of the painting was severely damaged when a vandal doused the painting with acid. On December 30 of the same year, a young Bolivian named Ugo Ungaza Villegas threw a rock at the painting; this resulted in the loss of a speck of pigment near the left elbow, which was later painted over.
The use of bulletproof glass
has shielded the Mona Lisa from more recent attacks. In April 1974, a handicapped woman, upset by the museum's policy for the disabled, sprayed red paint at the painting while it was on display at the Tokyo National Museum
. On August 2, 2009, a Russian woman, distraught over being denied French citizenship, threw a terracotta mug or teacup, purchased at the museum, at the painting in the Louvre; the vessel shattered against the glass enclosure. In both cases, the painting was undamaged.
(1642) is one of the most popular paintings at the Rijksmuseum
in Amsterdam. It is viewed by about 4,000 to 5,000 visitors daily with its value estimated at $925,000 in the 1970s. The painting was vandalized on several occasions. On January 13, 1911, an unemployed navy cook tried to cut it with a knife, but could not cut through the thick varnish on the painting.
In 1975, William de Rijk, an unemployed school teacher, cut dozens of zigzag lines in the painting with a knife before he was wrestled by the guards. The day before, de Rijk had been turned away from the museum because he arrived after closing time. After the event, he was identified with a mental disorder; he was sent to a psychiatric hospital and committed suicide there on April 21, 1976. The painting was restored, but traces of the cuts still remain. In 1990, a man threw acid on the painting. The guards managed to quickly dilute it with water so that it penetrated only the varnish layer, and the painting was restored again.
is a statue of the mermaid from the fairy tale of the same name
by Hans Christian Andersen
. The statue is located in the harbor of Copenhagen
and is an icon and a major tourist attraction
of the city. The statue has been damaged and defaced so many times since the mid-1950s that in 2007, Copenhagen officials announced that the statue may be moved further out in the harbor to avoid further vandalism and to prevent tourists from climbing onto it.
On April 24, 1964, the statue's head was sawn off and stolen by politically oriented artists of the Situationist movement, amongst them Jørgen Nash
. The head was never recovered and a new head was produced and placed on the statue. On July 22, 1984, the right arm was sawn off and returned two days later by two young men. In 1990, an attempt to sever the statue's head left a cut in the neck 18 centimetres (7 in) deep.
On January 6, 1998, the statue was decapitated again; the culprits were never found, but the head was returned anonymously to a nearby TV station, and re-attached on February 4. On the night of September 10, 2003, the statue was knocked off its base with explosives and later found in the harbor's waters. Holes were blasted in the mermaid's wrist and knee.
Paint has been poured on the statue several times, including one episode in 1963 and two in March and May 2007. On March 8, 2006, green paint was poured over the statue and a dildo
was attached to its hand.
In 1974, Tony Shafrazi
wrote "KILL LIES ALL" with red spray paint over the work Guernica
by Pablo Picasso
. Shafrazi was ostensibly protesting Richard Nixon
's pardon of William Calley
for the latter's actions during the My Lai massacre
. The paint was removed with relative ease from the varnished surface.
On June 15, 1985, Rembrandt's 17th-century painting Danaë was attacked in the Hermitage Museum
in Russia. A man, later judged insane, first threw sulfuric acid
on the canvas and then cut it twice with a knife. The entire central part of the composition was virtually destroyed. The restoration took 12 years, between 1985 and 1997; since then, the painting has been protected with an armored glass.
In 1997, Alexander Brener
painted a green dollar sign on Kazimir Malevich
's painting Suprematisme. The painting was restored and Brener was sentenced to 5 months in prison. During the court case, he said in his defense:
in Moscow. With three knife blows, he cut through the faces of both Ivans. Balashev was found mentally ill and restricted to a psychiatric hospital. The painting was restored by two top restoration experts within a week; the work was greatly assisted by the availability of good-quality photographs of the painting.
On March 10, 1914, militant suffragette Mary Richardson
walked into the National Gallery
of London and attacked Diego Velázquez
's painting Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver. Her action was ostensibly provoked by the arrest of fellow suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst
the previous day, although there had been earlier warnings of a planned attack on the collection. Richardson left seven slashes on the painting, all of which have been successfully repaired. Richardson was sentenced to six months imprisonment, the maximum allowed for destruction of an artwork. In a statement to the Women's Social and Political Union
shortly afterwards, Richardson explained, "I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs. Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history". She added in a 1952 interview that she didn't like "the way men visitors gaped at it all day long".
In 1988, a man "wishing to take revenge on abstract art" cut with a knife the painting Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III by Barnett Newman
. The restoration took 5 years and cost $450,000. After serving time in prison, the offender slashed another Newman painting.
A rather unusual case, which might not qualify as vandalism, occurred in 1908. An exhibition was set up for May of that year with paintings by Claude Monet
, which had already been praised by critics and were estimated at $100,000 (1908 prices). Despite this, Monet decided that he was not satisfied with his work and in a sudden move destroyed all the paintings with a knife and a paint brush.
, a Roman
cameo glass
vase dated to between 5 and 25 BCE, was shattered by drunken William Lloyd while on display in the British Museum
. The vase was pieced together and underwent several further repairs, all not entirely successful. The vase's appearance became satisfactory only after its most recent restoration in 1987.
On September 14, 1991, a "deranged" man attacked the statue David
by Michelangelo
with a hammer he had concealed under his jacket, damaging the toes of the left foot before being restrained. The samples obtained from that incident helped scientists determine that the marble used was obtained from the Fantiscritti quarries
in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara
. The statue was restored.
La Pietà
, another work by Michelangelo, is a 1499 example of Renaissance
sculpture housed in St. Peter's Basilica
in Vatican City. On May 21, 1972, mentally disturbed geologist Laszlo Toth, aged 33, attacked the statue with a hammer while yelling "I am Jesus Christ!", chipping the Virgin Mary's left eyelid, neck, head, veil and left forearm; the forearm fell on the floor, causing the fingers to break. Most broken pieces were collected by the service people but some were taken by tourists. The sculpture was repaired and is now protected by bulletproof glass. Toth was not charged with a crime, but was found socially dangerous and confined for two years to a psychiatric institution in Italy.
in the Louvre. She reportedly wanted to draw attention to herself.
In 1977, 43-year-old Ruth van Herpen kissed a painting by Jo Baer
at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art, claiming to try cheering up a "cold" painting. She was ordered by law to pay the restoration costs of $1,260.
On 19 July 2007, police arrested artist Rindy Sam after she kissed the all-white canvas of Phaedrus by Cy Twombly
, leaving a red lipstick mark. The artwork, which was worth an estimated $2,830,000, was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Avignon
, France. First attempts to remove the mark using about 30 various chemicals were unsuccessful. Sam was tried in a court in Avignon for "voluntary degradation of a work of art". She defended herself by saying to the court: "It was just a kiss, a loving gesture. I kissed it without thinking; I thought the artist would understand... It was an artistic act provoked by the power of Art". In November 2007, Sam was convicted and ordered to pay 1,000€ to the painting's owner, 500€ to the Avignon gallery that showed it, and 1€ to the painter.
in London with a sawn-off shotgun concealed under his coat. He then shot the painting The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist
by Leonardo da Vinci from a distance of about 2 meters (7 feet). The pellets did not penetrate the protective glass, but shattered it, and the splinters caused significant damage to the artwork. Cambridge told the police that he wanted to express his disgust with "political, social and economic conditions in Britain"; he was placed in a mental institution. The restoration of the painting took more than a year to complete.
, Pianist with Checkers Players (1924) and The Japanese Woman (1901), exhibited in the Capitoline Museums
. The holes were mended in a few days.
In January 2004 Zvi Mazel
tried to destroy the artwork Snow White and The Madness of Truth
by unplugging lights and throwing one of them into a pool causing a short circuit.
On 24 February 2006, a 12-year-old boy stuck chewing gum to $1.5 million abstract painting The Bay by Helen Frankenthaler
, displayed at the Detroit Institute of Arts
. The museum's conservation lab successfully cleaned and restored the painting, which was put back on display in late June 2006.
In 2007, the painting The Triumph of David by Ottavio Vannini
(1640), exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Museum
, was attacked by a 21-year-old man with a history of mental illness. He pulled the painting off the wall, stomping on it several times. The man was reportedly disturbed by the image of Goliath's severed head.
In 2007, vandals broke into the Orsay Museum in Paris in the early morning, set off the alarm and damaged the painting Bridge at Argenteuil by Claude Monet. They left a 10 centimetres (4 in) tear in the middle, either with a hand blow or with a sharp object.
Accidental damage of art
Accidental damage of art refers to damage or destructions of an artwork as a result of various types of accidents, such as natural disasters, fire, plane crash, a fall and others...
). The object is usually exhibited in public, becomes damaged as a result of the act, and remains in place right after the act. This may distinguish it from art destruction
Art destruction
Art destruction involves the damaging or destruction of works of art. This can happen through a natural process, an accident, or deliberate human involvement.-Natural destruction:...
and iconoclasm
Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
, where it may be wholly destroyed and removed, and art theft
Art theft
Art theft is usually for the purpose of resale or for ransom . Stolen art is sometimes used by criminals to secure loans.. One must realize that only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered. Estimates range from 5 to 10%. This means that little is known about the scope and characteristics of...
, or looting
Looted art
Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act, or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unethical pillage by the victor of a conflict."Looted art"...
.
Numerous acts of vandalism against art exhibits are known and some objects, such as Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
, Night Watch
Night Watch (painting)
Night Watch or The Night Watch or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq is the common name of one of the most famous works by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn....
and The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid (statue)
The statue of The Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the harbour of the capital of Denmark. Based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction....
, have been intentionally damaged several times. Many vandals were diagnosed with a mental disorder and some, such as Hans-Joachim Bohlmann
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann was a German serial vandal who primarily targeted artworks at public exhibitions. Between 1977 and 2006, he damaged over 50 paintings worth more than 270 million Deutsche Marks by such artists as Rubens, Rembrandt and Dürer.-Life:Bohlmann was born in Breslau .Since his youth,...
, had a history of attacking artworks. A vast amount of damage consists of leaving a minor scratch, a stuck chewing gum, a pencil mark and so on, and usually escapes publicity. More visible acts of vandalism were premeditated, as the tool of destruction a knife, paint, acid or hammer was intentionally brought to the scene. In most cases, the artworks were restored. Restorations were costly and time consuming and in many cases were followed by shielding the artwork from future attacks.
History of the term
The term vandalisme was coined in 1794 by Henri GrégoireHenri Grégoire
Henri Grégoire , often referred to as Abbé Grégoire, was a French Roman Catholic priest, constitutional bishop of Blois and a revolutionary leader...
, bishop of Blois
Blois
Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...
, to describe the destruction of artwork following the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. The term originated from the invasion of Rome in 455 by the East Germanic tribe of Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
, which resulted in destruction of numerous artworks, and was quickly adopted across Europe.
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann
Hans-Joachim BohlmannHans-Joachim Bohlmann
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann was a German serial vandal who primarily targeted artworks at public exhibitions. Between 1977 and 2006, he damaged over 50 paintings worth more than 270 million Deutsche Marks by such artists as Rubens, Rembrandt and Dürer.-Life:Bohlmann was born in Breslau .Since his youth,...
(1937–2009) was a German serial vandal. Between 1977 and 2006, he damaged over 50 paintings worth more than 270 million Deutsche Marks (about 138 million euros) by such artists as Rubens, Rembrandt and Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
. Bohlmann had a personality disorder
Personality disorder
Personality disorders, formerly referred to as character disorders, are a class of personality types and behaviors. Personality disorders are noted on Axis II of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-IV-TR of the American Psychiatric Association.Personality disorders are...
and was treated in various psychiatric hospitals since a young age. In most acts, he sprayed paintings with sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
, targeting faces of the personages.
Mona Lisa
Mona LisaMona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
by Leonardo da Vinci has long been attracting vandals and is currently one of the best-protected artworks. In 1956, the lower part of the painting was severely damaged when a vandal doused the painting with acid. On December 30 of the same year, a young Bolivian named Ugo Ungaza Villegas threw a rock at the painting; this resulted in the loss of a speck of pigment near the left elbow, which was later painted over.
The use of bulletproof glass
Bulletproof glass
Bulletproof glass is a type of strong but optically transparent material that is particularly resistant to being penetrated when struck by bullets, but is not completely impenetrable. It is usually made from a combination of two or more types of glass, one hard and one soft...
has shielded the Mona Lisa from more recent attacks. In April 1974, a handicapped woman, upset by the museum's policy for the disabled, sprayed red paint at the painting while it was on display at the Tokyo National Museum
Tokyo National Museum
Established 1872, the , or TNM, is the oldest and largest museum in Japan. The museum collects, houses, and preserves a comprehensive collection of art works and archaeological objects of Asia, focusing on Japan. The museum holds over 110,000 objects, which includes 87 Japanese National Treasure...
. On August 2, 2009, a Russian woman, distraught over being denied French citizenship, threw a terracotta mug or teacup, purchased at the museum, at the painting in the Louvre; the vessel shattered against the glass enclosure. In both cases, the painting was undamaged.
Night Watch
Rembrandt's Night WatchNight Watch (painting)
Night Watch or The Night Watch or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq is the common name of one of the most famous works by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn....
(1642) is one of the most popular paintings at the Rijksmuseum
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or simply Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history. It has a large collection of paintings from the Dutch Golden Age and a substantial collection of Asian art...
in Amsterdam. It is viewed by about 4,000 to 5,000 visitors daily with its value estimated at $925,000 in the 1970s. The painting was vandalized on several occasions. On January 13, 1911, an unemployed navy cook tried to cut it with a knife, but could not cut through the thick varnish on the painting.
In 1975, William de Rijk, an unemployed school teacher, cut dozens of zigzag lines in the painting with a knife before he was wrestled by the guards. The day before, de Rijk had been turned away from the museum because he arrived after closing time. After the event, he was identified with a mental disorder; he was sent to a psychiatric hospital and committed suicide there on April 21, 1976. The painting was restored, but traces of the cuts still remain. In 1990, a man threw acid on the painting. The guards managed to quickly dilute it with water so that it penetrated only the varnish layer, and the painting was restored again.
The Little Mermaid
The Little MermaidThe Little Mermaid (statue)
The statue of The Little Mermaid sits on a rock in the harbour of the capital of Denmark. Based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, the small and unimposing statue is a Copenhagen icon and a major tourist attraction....
is a statue of the mermaid from the fairy tale of the same name
The Little Mermaid
"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...
by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
. The statue is located in the harbor of Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and is an icon and a major tourist attraction
Tourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
of the city. The statue has been damaged and defaced so many times since the mid-1950s that in 2007, Copenhagen officials announced that the statue may be moved further out in the harbor to avoid further vandalism and to prevent tourists from climbing onto it.
On April 24, 1964, the statue's head was sawn off and stolen by politically oriented artists of the Situationist movement, amongst them Jørgen Nash
Jørgen Nash
Jørgen Nash was a Danish artist, writer and central proponent of situationism. He was born in Vejrum, Jutland, Denmark, baptized Jørgen Axel Jørgensen, the brother of Asger Jorn. He later changed his family name from Jørgensen to Nash. He was married three times and has six children...
. The head was never recovered and a new head was produced and placed on the statue. On July 22, 1984, the right arm was sawn off and returned two days later by two young men. In 1990, an attempt to sever the statue's head left a cut in the neck 18 centimetres (7 in) deep.
On January 6, 1998, the statue was decapitated again; the culprits were never found, but the head was returned anonymously to a nearby TV station, and re-attached on February 4. On the night of September 10, 2003, the statue was knocked off its base with explosives and later found in the harbor's waters. Holes were blasted in the mermaid's wrist and knee.
Paint has been poured on the statue several times, including one episode in 1963 and two in March and May 2007. On March 8, 2006, green paint was poured over the statue and a dildo
Dildo
A dildo is a sex toy, often explicitly phallic in appearance, intended for bodily penetration during masturbation or sex with partners.- Description and uses :...
was attached to its hand.
Acid and paint
In 1880, exhibits of the Russian painter Vasily Vereshchagin in Viena caused the opposition of the Catholic Church, which culminated in an attack on two paintings, Holy family and Resurrection . A monk splashed enough acid on the paintings to virtually destroy them.In 1974, Tony Shafrazi
Tony Shafrazi
Tony Shafrazi is the owner of the Shafrazi Art Gallery in New York, who deals artwork by artists such as Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, and David LaChapelle....
wrote "KILL LIES ALL" with red spray paint over the work Guernica
Guernica (painting)
Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War...
by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
. Shafrazi was ostensibly protesting Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's pardon of William Calley
William Calley
William Laws Calley is a convicted American war criminal and a former U.S. Army officer found guilty of murder for his role in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War.-Early life:...
for the latter's actions during the My Lai massacre
My Lai Massacre
The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of 347–504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Most of the victims were women, children , and...
. The paint was removed with relative ease from the varnished surface.
On June 15, 1985, Rembrandt's 17th-century painting Danaë was attacked in the Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
in Russia. A man, later judged insane, first threw sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
on the canvas and then cut it twice with a knife. The entire central part of the composition was virtually destroyed. The restoration took 12 years, between 1985 and 1997; since then, the painting has been protected with an armored glass.
In 1997, Alexander Brener
Alexander Brener
Alexander Davidovič Brener born 1957 in Alma-Ata, is a Russian-Jewish performance artist. His performances of note include defecating in front of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh at the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, having sex on city streets, and vandalizing art work.He was jailed in 1997 for...
painted a green dollar sign on Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...
's painting Suprematisme. The painting was restored and Brener was sentenced to 5 months in prison. During the court case, he said in his defense:
Knife
On January 16, 1913, a 29 years old iconographer Abram Balashev attacked the painting Ivan Grozny and his son Ivan by Ilya Repin in the Tretyakov GalleryTretyakov Gallery
The State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection,...
in Moscow. With three knife blows, he cut through the faces of both Ivans. Balashev was found mentally ill and restricted to a psychiatric hospital. The painting was restored by two top restoration experts within a week; the work was greatly assisted by the availability of good-quality photographs of the painting.
On March 10, 1914, militant suffragette Mary Richardson
Mary Richardson
Mary Raleigh Richardson was a Canadian suffragette active in the women's suffrage movement in the United Kingdom and later the head of the women's section of British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley....
walked into the National Gallery
National gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...
of London and attacked Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
's painting Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver. Her action was ostensibly provoked by the arrest of fellow suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote...
the previous day, although there had been earlier warnings of a planned attack on the collection. Richardson left seven slashes on the painting, all of which have been successfully repaired. Richardson was sentenced to six months imprisonment, the maximum allowed for destruction of an artwork. In a statement to the Women's Social and Political Union
Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
shortly afterwards, Richardson explained, "I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs. Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history". She added in a 1952 interview that she didn't like "the way men visitors gaped at it all day long".
In 1988, a man "wishing to take revenge on abstract art" cut with a knife the painting Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III by Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters.-Early life:...
. The restoration took 5 years and cost $450,000. After serving time in prison, the offender slashed another Newman painting.
A rather unusual case, which might not qualify as vandalism, occurred in 1908. An exhibition was set up for May of that year with paintings by Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, which had already been praised by critics and were estimated at $100,000 (1908 prices). Despite this, Monet decided that he was not satisfied with his work and in a sudden move destroyed all the paintings with a knife and a paint brush.
Smashing and shattering
On February 7, 1845, the Portland VasePortland Vase
The Portland Vase is a Roman cameo glass vase, currently dated to between AD 5 and AD 25, which served as an inspiration to many glass and porcelain makers from about the beginning of the 18th century onwards. Since 1810 the vase has been kept almost continuously in the British Museum in London...
, a Roman
Roman glass
Roman glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts. Glass was used primarily for the production of vessels, although mosaic tiles and window glass were also produced. Roman glass production developed from Hellenistic technical traditions,...
cameo glass
Cameo Glass
Cameo glass is a luxury form of glass art produced by etching and carving through fused layers of differently colored glass to produce designs, usually with white opaque glass figures and motifs on a dark-colored background...
vase dated to between 5 and 25 BCE, was shattered by drunken William Lloyd while on display in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. The vase was pieced together and underwent several further repairs, all not entirely successful. The vase's appearance became satisfactory only after its most recent restoration in 1987.
On September 14, 1991, a "deranged" man attacked the statue David
David (Michelangelo)
David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence...
by Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
with a hammer he had concealed under his jacket, damaging the toes of the left foot before being restrained. The samples obtained from that incident helped scientists determine that the marble used was obtained from the Fantiscritti quarries
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara
Carrara
Carrara is a city and comune in the province of Massa-Carrara , notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence....
. The statue was restored.
La Pietà
Pietà (Michelangelo)
The Pietà is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres, who was a representative in...
, another work by Michelangelo, is a 1499 example of Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
sculpture housed in St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
in Vatican City. On May 21, 1972, mentally disturbed geologist Laszlo Toth, aged 33, attacked the statue with a hammer while yelling "I am Jesus Christ!", chipping the Virgin Mary's left eyelid, neck, head, veil and left forearm; the forearm fell on the floor, causing the fingers to break. Most broken pieces were collected by the service people but some were taken by tourists. The sculpture was repaired and is now protected by bulletproof glass. Toth was not charged with a crime, but was found socially dangerous and confined for two years to a psychiatric institution in Italy.
Lipstick
In 1912, a young woman kissed the forehead, eyes and nose of a portrait by François BoucherFrançois Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
in the Louvre. She reportedly wanted to draw attention to herself.
In 1977, 43-year-old Ruth van Herpen kissed a painting by Jo Baer
Jo Baer
Josephine Gail "Jo" Baer, born Josephine Kleinberg August 7, 1929, is an American artist, whose works are associated with minimalist art...
at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art, claiming to try cheering up a "cold" painting. She was ordered by law to pay the restoration costs of $1,260.
On 19 July 2007, police arrested artist Rindy Sam after she kissed the all-white canvas of Phaedrus by Cy Twombly
Cy Twombly
Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly, Jr. was an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors...
, leaving a red lipstick mark. The artwork, which was worth an estimated $2,830,000, was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
, France. First attempts to remove the mark using about 30 various chemicals were unsuccessful. Sam was tried in a court in Avignon for "voluntary degradation of a work of art". She defended herself by saying to the court: "It was just a kiss, a loving gesture. I kissed it without thinking; I thought the artist would understand... It was an artistic act provoked by the power of Art". In November 2007, Sam was convicted and ordered to pay 1,000€ to the painting's owner, 500€ to the Avignon gallery that showed it, and 1€ to the painter.
Guns
In July 1987, a man named Robert Cambridge entered the National GalleryNational gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...
in London with a sawn-off shotgun concealed under his coat. He then shot the painting The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist
The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist
The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, sometimes called The Burlington House Cartoon, is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, believed to have been executed c.1499-1500. The drawing is in charcoal and black and white chalk, on eight sheets of paper glued together. Because of its...
by Leonardo da Vinci from a distance of about 2 meters (7 feet). The pellets did not penetrate the protective glass, but shattered it, and the splinters caused significant damage to the artwork. Cambridge told the police that he wanted to express his disgust with "political, social and economic conditions in Britain"; he was placed in a mental institution. The restoration of the painting took more than a year to complete.
Other tools
In January 1998, vandals poked holes in two paintings by Henri MatisseHenri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
, Pianist with Checkers Players (1924) and The Japanese Woman (1901), exhibited in the Capitoline Museums
Capitoline Museums
The Capitoline Museums are a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The museums are contained in three palazzi surrounding a central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over...
. The holes were mended in a few days.
In January 2004 Zvi Mazel
Zvi Mazel
Zvi Mazel is an Israeli diplomat. He was the Israeli ambassador to Sweden from 2002 to 2004, after serving as ambassador in Egypt from 1996 to 2001 and, later, Romania...
tried to destroy the artwork Snow White and The Madness of Truth
Snow White and The Madness of Truth
Snow White and The Madness of Truth was an item of installation art by Swedish, Israeli-born composer and musician Dror Feiler, and his Swedish wife, artist Gunilla Sköld-Feiler...
by unplugging lights and throwing one of them into a pool causing a short circuit.
On 24 February 2006, a 12-year-old boy stuck chewing gum to $1.5 million abstract painting The Bay by Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler is an American abstract expressionist painter. She is a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work in six decades she has spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work...
, displayed at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
. The museum's conservation lab successfully cleaned and restored the painting, which was put back on display in late June 2006.
In 2007, the painting The Triumph of David by Ottavio Vannini
Ottavio Vannini
Ottavio Vannini was an Italian artist of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence.Born in Florence to Michele Vannini. He initially apprenticed for four years with a mediocre painter by the name of Giovanni Battista Mercati, but he then trained in Rome under Anastasio Fuontebuoni. He...
(1640), exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Museum
Milwaukee Art Museum
The Milwaukee Art Museum is located on Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Beginning around 1872, multiple organizations were founded in order to bring an art gallery to Milwaukee, as the city was still a growing port town with little or no facilities to hold major art exhibitions...
, was attacked by a 21-year-old man with a history of mental illness. He pulled the painting off the wall, stomping on it several times. The man was reportedly disturbed by the image of Goliath's severed head.
In 2007, vandals broke into the Orsay Museum in Paris in the early morning, set off the alarm and damaged the painting Bridge at Argenteuil by Claude Monet. They left a 10 centimetres (4 in) tear in the middle, either with a hand blow or with a sharp object.
See also
- Art destructionArt destructionArt destruction involves the damaging or destruction of works of art. This can happen through a natural process, an accident, or deliberate human involvement.-Natural destruction:...
- Art forgeryArt forgeryArt forgery is the creation of works of art which are falsely attributed to other, usually more famous, artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged artwork much simpler....
- Art interventionArt interventionArt intervention is an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience or venue/space. It has the auspice of conceptual art and is commonly a form of performance art. It is associated with the Viennese Actionists, the Dada movement and Neo-Dadaists...
- Art theftArt theftArt theft is usually for the purpose of resale or for ransom . Stolen art is sometimes used by criminals to secure loans.. One must realize that only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered. Estimates range from 5 to 10%. This means that little is known about the scope and characteristics of...
- Art theft and looting during World War IIArt theft and looting during World War IIArt theft and looting occurred on massive scale during World War II. It originated with the policies of the Axis countries, primarily Nazi Germany and Japan, which systematically looted occupied territories...
- Degenerate artDegenerate artDegenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were...
- IconoclasmIconoclasmIconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
- Looted artLooted artLooted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act, or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unethical pillage by the victor of a conflict."Looted art"...