5 popular art pieces vandalised for crazy reasons
Art vandalism has been happening for centuries, and the latest artwork to join the list is Anna Leporskaya's 'Three Figures'. The painting, currently on display at the Yeltsin Center, Yekaterinburg in Russia, was vandalised by a security guard. The guard, who was on his first day of work, drew eyes on two of the three figures in the painting. With a pen.
Anna created the painting from 1932 to 1934, and it has an insurance worth 740,000 Pound Sterling. The price of the painting is not known.
When asked why the guard did so, he simply replied that he was bored. Two visitors at the art exhibition 'The World as Non-Objectivity. The Birth of a New Art' were able to identify the 'eyes' on December 7, 2021. The painting is currently being restored and the restoration costs are around 2,470 Pound Sterling.
Well, this isn't the first time expensive paintings and sculptures have been ruined for absolutely absurd reasons.
Here are 5 that you couldn't justify even if you wanted to:
1. MONA LISA BY LEONARDO DA VINCI
One of the most famous paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci, has been vandalised 4 different times: twice in 1956, once in 1974, and once in 2009. The first time in 1956, the lower part of the painting was doused with acid by a vandal. At the time, the painting was on display at a museum in Montauban, France.
In December the same year, a vandal from Bolivia threw a rock at the painting which caused damage to the paint on Mona Lisa's left elbow. The painting was then restored.
In April 1974, the Mona Lisa was on display in the Tokyo National Museum. A disabled woman, at the time, was unhappy with the Tokyo National Museum's disability policy and channeled her rage on to the painting. She went on to spray red paint all over the painting's glass case.
In August 2009, the Mona Lisa had finally reached the Lourve in Paris, where she is still on display, but was not safe even then. After being rejected for a French citizenship, an angry Russian woman threw a terracotta mug at the bullet-proof glass case protecting the painting. Fortunately, the painting did not suffer any direct damage.
2. PIETA BY MICHELANGELO
Built between 1498-1499, this sculpture by Michelangelo has suffered numerous acts of vandalism. But if there is one that truly stands out for being the most absurd, it is when in 1972, an Australian geologist attacked it with a hammer while yelling, "I am Jesus Christ, risen from the dead."
The sculpture is on display at the St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. Piéta potrays Jesus in the lap of Mary after the Crucifixion. When Piéta was damaged by the geologist, many of the broken pieces which included Mary’s nose, elbow and eyelash were stolen by the people in the room at the time. The sculpture was then restored with material from Mary’s back.
Like the Mona Lisa, the Pieta is also now protected by a bulletproof glass case.
3. ARGENTUIL BASIN WITH A SINGLE SAIL BOAT BY CLAUDE MONET
When Claude Monet painted the Argentuil Basin with a Single Sail Boat, he would not have anticipated that the painting would be vandalised in June 2012. The vandal, Andrew Shannon, punched a hole through the painting (allegedly) and was subsequently arrested. During his trial, he told the court that because of his heart condition, he fainted and fell forward.
He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. The painting was restored and put back on display in July 2014 at the National Gallery of Ireland.
4. BLACK ON MAROON BY MARK ROTHCO
The Black on Maroon was painted by Mark Rothco in 1958 and was vandalised in October 2012. The vandal, Wlodzimierz Umaniec, took a black marker and wrote "A POTENTIAL PIECE OF YELLOWISM" on the side of the painting.
One of the restorers of the painting, Conservator Rachel Barker told BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz, "The graffiti had covered an area about the size of an LP and some had seeped right to the back of the canvas. A vinyl record measures 12 in (30cm) in diameter."
The painting took 18 months to be restored and was finally back on display in May 2014.
5. GIRL WITH BALLOON BY BANKSY
Banksy's Girl with Balloon has an interesting history. The painting sold for more than 1 million Pound Sterling at a Sotheby's auction in London in 2018. But at the time of the auction, the painting began to shred and ultimately destroyed half of itself.
Banksy had embedded an automatic shredding device in the painting's thick frame, but the device malfunctioned, leading to only half of Girl with Balloon to be destroyed.
The value of the painting, at the moment increased exponentially and the new piece came to be known as Love is in the Bin. Guess Banksy must have had a good laugh when he saw this happen.