The climate crisis is the argument of the protesters for recent attacks on world works of art

Just two weeks after the start of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, protests by environmental activists against renowned works of art have increased. But in the list of attacks on great works of art, there are others in the 20th century, as forms of protest for various postulates.

This October, works by Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso have been attacked.

This Sunday it was the turn of a painting by Claude Monet from the series “Halks”in a museum near Berlin, but the October 14 in London the attack was against Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, and on October 9, two people attached their hands to Pablo Picasso’s painting “Massacre in Korea”, exhibited in Melbourne (Australia).

In all three cases the perpetrators were activists trying to draw attention to the climate crisis.

Also this year, the May 25, the painting of La Gioconda, one of the main claims of the Louvre museum in Paris, was attacked, to which a visitor threw a cake, although the work was not damaged when the pastel crashed against the armored glass that has protected the oil for six decades. The attacker was reduced by the security of the French museum.

Other attacks against works of art

1911. “The Night Watch” (Rembrandt)

This masterpiece that the Dutch painter painted in the 17th century has also received several attacks. In 1911 it was stabbed for the first time, but the cut was shallow and only scratched the varnish.

Also with superficial damage was the attack in 1990 carried out with acid by a psychiatric patient, thanks to the rapid intervention of the museum’s security guards.

Much more serious was the cut that was given to the canvas when it was transferred from its original location, in the Kloveniersdoelen in Amsterdam, to the City Hall in Dam Square: since it did not fit into the wall of the town hall, part of the left and upper side was cut, which meant the loss of three characters that were in the original, a copy of which is kept in the National Gallery in London.

1914. “Venus of the Mirror” (Velázquez)

This work suffered an attack in the National Gallery in London in 1914 by the suffragette Mary Richardson, who stabbed her seven times. Richardson was sentenced to six months in prison.

1956. “La Gioconda” (Leonardo da Vinci)

In addition to the failed attack suffered last May, the emblematic work of Leonardo da Vinci collects attacks: in 1956 a man with mental problems threw a stone at the painting that broke the protective glass of the work and caused the pictorial layer to detach. the height of the left elbow of the Monna Lisa. These damages, despite the restoration, are still visible.

Bulletproof glass was then installed that made it possible for the painting to not suffer damage in another attack, this time with paint, launched in 1974 by a woman when the painting was on display at the National Museum in Tokyo (Japan). The assailant was protesting against the museum’s policy, which made it difficult for people with disabilities to access it.

It was then decided that La Gioconda would not leave the Louvre, but this did not prevent a woman of Russian nationality from throwing the mug she had just bought in the museum shop at the painting in protest that she had been denied French citizenship. The canvas was not damaged.

1962. “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist” (Leonardo da Vinci)

Also exhibited at the National Gallery in London since 1962, that same year it was attacked with red paint by a German painter, for which it was protected with glass. In 1987 it was shot, which caused some damage precisely because of the protective glass particles, which is why it was decided to display it protected by armored glass.

1974. “Guernica” (Picasso)

In 1974 an art dealer wrote the words “Kill Lies All” on Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, then on display at the MoMA in New York, in red paint. The paint was cleaned and the painting was not damaged.

1985. “Danae” (Rembrandt)

In 1985, at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the Lithuanian Bronius Maiguis sprayed the work with sulfuric acid and stabbed it several times. The painting, after twelve years of restoration, returned to the museum in 1997 protected by armored glass.

2003. “Liberty leading the people” (Eugène Delacroix)

In 2003, a young woman made an inscription with a marker at the bottom of the painting. The work was exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Lens (France).

2006. “The Bay” (Helen Frankenthaler)

In March 2006, a twelve-year-old boy who was participating in a school visit stuck a piece of gum in the painting “The Bay” by the American abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler, exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Arts (USA). The gum left a small stain but the paint could be restored.

2007. “Le pont d’Argenteuil” (Claude Monet)

In 2007 several people entered the Musée d’Orsay in Paris at night and damaged the painting, which was left with a crack of about four inches, the apparent result of a punch.

2007. Untitled painting by Cy Twombly

In July 2007, a woman kissed a white painting by the American artist Cy Twombly in a museum in Avignon (France) and left the lipstick mark of her lips on the canvas. The woman, who defended that her kiss was “an act of love and an artistic act” was sentenced to a fine of 1,500 euros and 100 hours of social work.

2012. “Woman on a red sofa” (Picasso)

In June 2012, a man sprayed gold on the painting painted by the painter from Malaga in 1929 and exhibited in the Menil collection in Houston (USA). The painting could be completely recovered.

In addition to the paintings, many other works of art have suffered major attacks, including iconic sculptures such as “La Piedad” by Michelangelo, in the Roman Basilica of Saint Peter, who in 1972 lost an arm, an eye and part of the head. nose after a hammer attack; or “The Little Mermaid” by Edward Eriksende, in Copenhagen, who lost her arm -1984-, was decapitated twice -1964 and 1998-, torn from her base with explosives -2003- and attacked with paint on several occasions .

The “Fontaine” (“Fountain”), by Marcel Duchamp, a porcelain urinal that was slightly chipped, was also attacked with a hammer at the Pompidou Center in Paris in 2006. (YO)