ART VANDALISM The assaulted work Mark Rothkos Black

ART VANDALISM

• The assaulted work: Mark Rothko’s Black on Maroon (1958) • The weapon: Black ink applied by Umanets, who wrote his name and the words "a potential piece of yellowism" —the name of a would-be movement cofounded by the perp—on the painting • The reason offered by the perp: He said, “I am not a vandal. Art allows us to take what someone's done and put a new message on it. "

• The assaulted work: Both times, Marcel Duchamp’s ready-made Fountain (1964) • The perpetrator: Both times, Frenchman Pierre Pinoncelli • The weapon: Both times, mainly a hammer • The reason offered by the perp: During questioning the second time around, Pinoncelli told police that his hammer attack was a work of performance art and then said : "I made it fresh and new, I created something new, of which Duchamp would have approved. "

• The assaulted work: The so-called Rokeby Venus (The Toilet of Venus) by Diego Velázquez • The perpetrator: Suffragette Mary Richardson • The weapon: A meat cleaver, with which she smashed the painting’s protective glass and then began slashing the canvas • The reason offered by the perp: “I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history. Justice is an element of beauty as much as colour and outline on canvas. ” Many years later she confessed, “I didn’t like the way men visitors to the gallery gaped at it all day. ”

• The assaulted work: Work No. 227: The lights going on and off by Martin Creed • The perpetrator: Artist Jacqueline Crofton • The weapon: Two chicken eggs • The reason offered by the perp: Crofton acted on a dream she had of vandalizing Creed’s work after it was selected as the winner of the Turner Prize. She claimed to have “nothing against Creed, although I do not think his work can be considered as art. At worst, The lights going on and off is an electrical work. At best, it is philosophy. What I object to fiercely is that we've got this cartel who control the top echelons of the art world in this country and leave no access for painters and sculptors with real creative talent. ”

• The assaulted work: Pietà by Michelangelo • The perpetrator: Unemployed geologist Laslo Toth • The weapon: A hammer, 12 blows • The reason offered by the perp: Toth offered no reason. He was certifiable enough to claim alternately that he was Jesus Christ and Michelangelo.

• The assaulted work: Curtains by Roy Lichtenstein • The perpetrator: Temporary Whitney guard Reginald Walker • The weapon: Felt-tip pen • The reason offered by the perp: He was apparently overcome by love. He drew a heart and wrote the words “Reggie + Crystal I Love You Tushee Love Buns. ”

• The assaulted work: Piet Mondrian’s Composition in White, Black, and Red • The perpetrator: Artist Jubal Brown • The weapon: Projectile vomit consisting of blue gelatin and blue icing • The reason offered by the perp: This was the second instance of Brown deliberately ingesting foods of a particular color in order to vomit on particular works of art that he considered “oppressively trite and painfully banal. ” (The first was Raoul Dufy’s Harbor at Le Havre, which “was just so boring it needed color. ” That time he vomited red gelatin and red icing. ) He said that he found the Mondrian work’s “lifelessness threatening. ”

• The assaulted work: Two monumental 6 thcentury Gandhara-style Buddhas • The scene of the crime: Bamiyan, Afghanistan • The perpetrator: Taliban, using various agents, at the command of Mullah Mohammad Omar • The weapon: Dynamite, tanks, and antiaircraft weapons • The reason offered by the perp: To rid the world of un-Muslim idolatry, human heritage be damned.