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On May 29, 2022, an unnamed individual shocked visitors of the Louvre crowded around Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa.' During a characteristically busy day at the Louvre in Paris, a man disguised as an old woman threw and then smeared cake all across the bulletproof glass encasing the Renaissance masterpiece. Directly after the attack, the man proclaimed, “There are people who are destroying the earth. All artists, think about the earth. That’s why I did this. Think of the planet.”
Leonardo da Vinci's enduring masterpiece, the 'Mona Lisa,' has been the focus of many scandals. Over the centuries, the portrait has been stolen, spray-painted, barraged with rocks, and smeared with food.
One of these rare originals has been on display in front of the Cleveland Museum of Art since 1917. Some decades later, in 1970, the bronze sculpture was the victim of a pipe bomb attack that completely destroyed the sculpture's base and lower legs. To this day, the sculpture still stands in dignified disrepair.
One of the most famous sculptures in history, French sculptor Auguste Rodin's 'The Thinker,' has been cast and recast 26 times over the years. Out of those 26, less than 10 were supervised by Rodin himself.
In 1972, Australian geologist Laszlo Toth, who had apparently long held the delusion that he was the Messiah, attacked the sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding a dying Jesus with a hammer, and managed to break off Mary's left forearm before being apprehended by visitors of the basilica.
One of the most famous sculptures to come out of the Renaissance, Michelangelo's 'Pietà,' finished in 1499, has for centuries been kept in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Shafrazi (pictured) spray-painted "KILL LIES ALL" across the 25-foot (7.7-m) long painting, in an apparent protest of the horrific My Lai massacre that took place during the Vietnam War. Picasso's painting was thankfully varnished, and the spray paint was easily removed.
While 'Black on Maroon' was hanging in London's Tate Gallery, a young man named Wlodzimierz Umaniec inscribed in permanent marker "A potential piece of Yellowism' near the bottom right-hand side of the painting. Yellowism was Umaniec's own artistic movement, one that he alone practiced. A year later, Umaniec publicly expressed his regret for defacing the painting.
British-Indian contemporary artist Anish Kapoor built his massive sculpture piece, dubbed 'Dirty Corner,' in 2011. Four years later, in 2015, it was installed on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in France.
Mark Rothko, the New York-based abstract painter famous for his deceptively simple landscapes of colors and shapes, had a piece named 'Black on Maroon,' created in 1958, vandalized in 2014.
Shortly after its installation in France, the massive sculpture and surrounding boulders were the victims of vandalism carried out with buckets of yellow paint, and were promptly cleaned off. Not long after, a second attack occurred, covering the work in anti-Semitic statements and slurs. This time, Kapoor refused to have his artwork cleaned, and let it stand defaced as a statement regarding France's poor treatment of Muslims, which the artist believed to have motivated the attack.
Rembrandt's masterpiece was first attacked by a man wielding a knife in 1911, but thankfully no permanent damage was done. Most recently, in 1990, an escapee of a nearby psychiatric hospital sprayed sulfuric acid on the left side of the painting. Thanks to the work's thick coat of varnish, 'The Night Watch' was fully restored.
Pablo Picasso, the Spanish pioneer of Cubism, completed one of his greatest works, the loud and towering anti-war piece 'Guernica,' in 1937. Nearly three decades later, in 1974, fellow artist Tony Shafrazi caused one of the biggest stirs in the art world when he defaced 'Guernica' with a bottle of spray paint.
Considered one of the finest Baroque paintings in history, Rembrandt's massive 1642 oil painting 'The Night Watch' has also been the victim of more than one attack.
American impressionist painter Barnett Newman, widely known for his massive, hypnotizing colorscapes, was no stranger to harsh criticism during his long career. The simplicity of his works frustrated audiences and critics alike, and they were the subjects of multiple attacks.
While whether or not an artist can vandalize their own works is up for debate, Monet certainly wreaked more havoc upon his own work than anyone else. He is said to have destroyed upwards of 500 of his own works in his lifetime.
One such attack occurred in 1986, when a man who was particularly averse to abstract art attacked the massive canvas of red and a touch of blue and yellow with a box cutter, cutting along almost the entire length of the painting. While an attempt at restoration was made, it was almost universally rejected, due to the fact the restorer used common house paint.
Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei has spent the last four decades pushing the boundaries of art, what it means, and what it can be. Weiwei's 1995 performance art piece 'Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn,' immortalized in three photographs, experimented with turning the vandalism of art into art itself.
The sculpture was first beheaded in 1964, and a replacement head was necessary as the original was never found or returned. Since then, there have been three additional beheadings. 'The Little Mermaid' has also suffered a bombing, numerous paintings, and a myriad of political statements spray-painted on its base.
The title of the piece is self-explanatory. Ai Weiwei dropped a 2,000-year-old Chinese work of art, and it shattered on the floor. Perhaps in a moment of karmic retribution, a component of Weiwei's own 'Colored Vases' was thrown on the floor by an angry visitor in 2014.
Podkowiński's painting, well known in Poland, only lasted over a month in the gallery before he attacked it with a knife, leaving multiple tears through the center of the painting. After the troubled artist succumbed to tuberculosis a year later, the painting was restored and put back on display. Podkowiński is pictured here in a self-portrait.
Sources: (Daily Art Magazine) (Time Out) (ARTnews)
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Another act of auto-vandalism occurred in Poland at the end of the 19th century when painter Władysław Podkowiński attempted to cut through his own painting, 'The Frenzy of Exultations,' while it was hanging in a gallery.
One of the most controversial works of contemporary art is undoubtedly French artist Marcel Duchamp's 'The Fountain,' a standard urinal set in an art instillation in 1917 with the purpose of challenging what exactly constitutes art.
While Duchamp's revolutionary statement may have redefined art, some people don't think it necessarily redefined the urinal. Numerous individuals, including musician Brian Eno, have used the urinal for its originally intended purpose while on public display in galleries and museums around the world. These days, the ready-made sculpture is encased in glass.
In 1914, a suffragette named Mary Richardson took a meat cleaver to the 'Rokeby Venus' while it was being displayed in London's National Gallery, in protest of a fellow suffragette's arrest. Richardson was known for her extreme protest record, which also included multiple acts of arson and a bombing. Later in life, Richardson would join the British Union of Fascists. In November 2023, the painting came under attack once again, this time by the vandal activists from Just Stop Oil. They smashed the protective glass covering the painting with hammers without damaging the masterpiece.
A statue inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's story of the same name, 'The Little Mermaid' sculpture in Copenhagen, Denmark, was created in 1913 by Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen. Since then, it has been the subject of countless attacks, with beheading being the most popular method of defacement.
In October 2022, two protesters from the UK group Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh's painting 'Sunflowers' at London's National Gallery and then glued their hands to the wall to protest climate change and the country's cost-of-living crisis. One of the protesters said in a later interview that she knew the painting was behind protective glass and would be unharmed, as the museum also confirmed.
The Baroque master Diego Velasquez, famous for his emotive portraits and scenes, thankfully didn't have to witness the defacement of one of his greatest works while he was alive during the 17th century. Three centuries later, however, it was badly damaged in a suffragette stunt.
Nine days later, activists in Germany threw mashed potatoes at Claude Monet's 'Les Meules' in the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, before gluing their hands to the wall. The two protesters were from an organization called Letzte Generation (Last Generation) and were also trying to raise awareness of the climate catastrophe.
One of the most widely respected artists in Russia during the 20th century, realist painter Ilya Repin, finished what would become one of the most famous works of art in the Russian sphere, his painting, 'Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan,' in 1885.
In the centuries that followed, Repin's masterpiece would be the focus of much controversy, and was purposefully damaged not once, but twice. The worst of these attacks came in 2018 when a visitor to the painting's home, the Tretyakov Gallery, smashed the painting's protective glass with a metal bar, consequently ripping the canvas in three central places.
The 'Mona Lisa' in Paris's Louvre museum got soup for supper on Sunday, January 28, 2024. Two women broke through the throngs of tourists and tossed pumpkin soup over the famous portrait. The painting is covered in armored glass and was not damaged. One of the women removed her jacket to reveal a t-shirt that read "Riposte Alimentaire"—the name of a food sustainability activist group in France. The name means "food response." The second woman reportedly shouted, "What is more important? Art or healthy sustainable food?” Museum workers rushed to the scene and the room was evacuated for 90 minutes so the display could be cleaned.
There is a long history of people taking out their frustration on art, for reasons ranging from the personal to the political, to the insane. In an attempt to push the boundaries of art, some artists have even sabotaged their own pieces. Whatever the reasons, the stories behind the art world's long battle with vandalism illustrate just how powerful art can really be.
In recent years, many activists have defaced famous paintings to raise awareness about climate change, although in most cases, without any real intention of damaging the art. Read on to find out more about the most audacious acts of vandalism against works of art.
Vandal expressionism: attacks on famous works of art
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There is a long history of people taking out their frustration on art, for reasons ranging from the personal to the political, to the insane. In an attempt to push the boundaries of art, some artists have even sabotaged their own pieces. Whatever the reasons, the stories behind the art world's long battle with vandalism illustrate just how powerful art can really be.
In recent years, many activists have defaced famous paintings to raise awareness about climate change, although in most cases, without any real intention of damaging the art. Read on to find out more about the most audacious acts of vandalism against works of art.