Vandalism of art is intentional damage of an artwork. The object, 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, Pietà and The Little Mermaid, have been intentionally damaged several times. Many vandals have been diagnosed with mental disorders and some, such as Hans-Joachim Bohlmann, had a history of attacking artworks. Other vandals have acted out of political protest. Smaller acts of vandalism may leave a minor scratch, a piece of chewing gum, a pencil mark and so on, and usually escape publicity.Gamboni, p. 191 More visible acts of vandalism are often premeditated, as the tool of destruction – a knife, paint, acid, soup, or hammer – is intentionally brought to the scene. In most cases, the artworks have been restored. Restorations are often costly and time-consuming, and in some cases are followed by the artwork becoming shielded against future attacks.
History of the term
The term vandalism was coined in 1794 by Henri Grégoire, bishop of Blois, to describe the destruction of artwork following the French Revolution. The term originated from the Sack of Rome in 455 by the East Germanic tribe of Vandals, which resulted in destruction of numerous artworks, and was quickly adopted across Europe.
Methods
Acid and paint In 1880, exhibits of the Russian painter Vasily Vereshchagin in Vienna 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.Peaceful painter . centre.smr.ru (in Russian)
In 1974, art dealer 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.Hoberman, J. (13 December 2004) "Pop and Circumstance". The Nation, pp. 22–26.
On 15 June 1985, Rembrandt's mid-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.Tylyakova, A. (1 November 1997) ВОЗВРАЩЕНИЕ ШЕДЕВРА РЕМБРАНДТА (Return of the Rembrandt's masterpiece). Зеркало недели #44, zn.ua
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:Battersby, Matilda (8 October 2012) Art attacks: From pissing in Duchamp's 'Fountain' to defacing a Rothko. Independent.co.uk.
On 13 June 2012, Uriel Landeros spray painted a bull and a matador and wrote "Conquista" with black spray paint over the 1929 work Woman in a Red Armchair by Pablo Picasso. He was charged with felony graffiti and criminal mischief and sentenced to two years in prison.
In 2017, a terror suspect attacked guards of the Louvre museum with machetes and was found carrying "bombs of aerosol paint" intended to "disfigure the masterpieces of the museum."
Knife
On 16 January 1913, a 29-year-old iconographer Abram Balashev attacked the painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan by Ilya Repin in the Tretyakov Gallery 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 leading Russian experts within a week; the work was greatly assisted by the availability of good-quality photographs of the painting.
On 10 March 1914, militant suffragette Mary Richardson walked into the National Gallery in 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 did not like "the way men visitors gaped at it all day long".
In September 1969, unidentified persons left long scratches in five paintings at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, with most damage inflicted to the Holy Family by Lorenzo Costa.5 schilderijen in Rijksmuseum zijn beschadigd door onbekenden A'dam: schilderij "De heilige Familie van Lorenzo Costa is het meest beschadigd. Dutch Nationaal Archief
On 6 April 1978, a 31-year-old Dutch artist, disgruntled over the non-payment of his welfare by the Amsterdam authorities, made three 30–40 cm long cuts in the center of the painting La Berceuse by Vincent van Gogh at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. A few days earlier, a 27-year-old Italian man slashed the painting The Adoration of the Golden Calf by Nicolas Poussin at the National Gallery in London.
In 1986, 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 likely does 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.
Smashing and shattering
On 7 February 1845, the Portland Vase, a Roman cameo glass vase dated to between 5 and 25 BCE, was shattered by a 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 14 September 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.See Gamboni, p. 205 for picture 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 21 May 1972, mentally disturbed geologist Laszlo Toth, aged 33, attacked the statue with a geologist 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.Gamboni, p. 202
On 17 February 2014, a local Floridian artist, Maximo Caminero, destroyed a colored vase by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in protest at the Pérez Art Museum Miami's lack of displays by local artists. The value of the vase was estimated at $1 million. Caminero was subsequently arrested and charged with criminal mischief.
In 2016, the glass sculpture Angel Is Waiting by Shelly Xue, on display at the Shanghai Museum of Glass, was irreparably damaged after two young boys snuck past the rope barriers and started pulling at the sculpture. Following the incident, the sculpture was renamed to Broken and a television screen was added, playing security footage of the incident on a loop.
On 26 May 2018, Repin's painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan was vandalized again. A 37-year-old drunken man grabbed a metal stand and repeatedly hit the painting, shattering its protection glass, seriously damaging the original wooden frame, and tearing the central part of the canvas. Fortunately, the most important details of the work, that is, the heads and hands of the tsar and his son, were unharmed.
On 24 September 2024, Ai Weiwei's Porcelain Cube was smashed during the opening of an exhibition in Bologna, Italy. The vandal was identified as Vaclav Pisvejc, a 57-year-old man, who had previously vandalized other works of art, including defacing Urs Fischer's sculpture Big Clay #4 with spray paint, and setting fire to a cloth draped over a replica of Michelangelo's David.
Lipstick
In 1912, a young woman "Marie" kissed the forehead, eyes, and nose of a portrait by François Boucher in the Louvre. She reportedly wanted to draw attention to herself.Gamboni, p. 192
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.
In 1998, the painting Bathtub by Andy Warhol, estimated to be worth several hundred thousand dollars, was kissed by a vandal during a party at the museum. Because Warhol had not varnished the painting, conservators at the Carnegie Museum of Art were concerned that traditional solvents would cause the lipstick to soak into the painting and make things worse.
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 June 2009, she was ordered to pay €18,840 to the Yvon Lambert gallery.
The prevalence of lipstick-related incidents of vandalism has led some museums to require guests to remove their makeup before entering the museum, although this practice has remained highly controversial.
Firearms