Martin Creed “The Lights Going On and Off” / eggs

(In 2001, a woman named Jacqueline Crofton smuggled eggs into London’s Tate Museum and threw them at Creed’s work (which consists of an empty room with two flashing lights). The eggs were wiped away in short order and the room was returned to normal viewing soon after.

Crofton, a 52-year-old artist and grandmother, had actually dreamed of committing the act the night before. After awaking from the dream, she told her husband of her intentions and promptly set out for the museum.

Explaining her actions, Crofton claimed that the attention gained by the Turner Prize-winning exhibit was “humiliating” for the majority of “genuine artists” in the UK.“I have nothing against Creed, although I do not think his work can be considered as art,” she said. “At worst, ‘The Lights Going On And Off’ is an electrical work. At best, it is philosophy.”

She continued, “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. All they are interested in is manufacturers of gimmicks like Creed, who made his name with a ball of BluTac and a sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball. Someone had to make a stand.”)

Martin Kippenberger “When It Starts Dripping From The Ceiling” / accidentally scrubbed clean

(In 2011, Kippenberger’s work - a wooden structure with a rubber trough painted to look as though it had once contained a puddle of dirty rainwater - was on view at Germany’s Ostwall Museum. An overnight cleaner mistook the trough’s hand-painted patina for simple dirt and scrubbed it away.)

Joseph Beuys “Untitled (Bathtub)” / accidentally scrubbed clean

(In 1986, Joseph Beuys’ sculpture - a dirty bathtub with a layer of grease on the inside - was scrubbed clean by an employee of the Academy of Fine Art in Düsseldorf.)

Damien Hirst installation/ accidentally thrown away

(In 2001, a cleaner accidentally threw out some of Damien Hirst’s work while it was on view at London’s Eyestorm gallery. Hirst’s installation included a pile of beer bottles, coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays, which overnight cleaner Emmanuel Asare mistook as garbage from the previous night’s opening. As Asare later told a newspaper: “As soon as I clapped eyes on it I sighed because there was so much mess. I didn’t think for a second that it was a work of art - it didn’t look much like art to me. So I cleared it all into bin-bags and dumped it.”

The gallery was able to put the installation back together, referencing documentation of how installation had originally looked. They also installed a sign by the work, reading “Keep Off.”)

Gustav Metzger “Recreation of First Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art” / accidentally thrown away

(In 2004, Metzger recreated his 1960 work “Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art” for a retrospective at London’s Tate Museum. The work, a multimedia installation exploring his concept of Auto-Destructive Art, included an acid-damaged nylon painting and a bag of rubbish.

The bag of rubbish was accidentally thrown away by an overnight cleaner who didn’t realize it was part of the exhibition. While the bag was fished out of the compactor when the mistake was found, Metzger considered it beyond repair and created a new bag as a replacement. The new rubbish bag was put in a box every night as a precaution.)

Carl Andre, “Equivalent VIII” / vegetable dye

(In 1976, a visitor to London’s Tate Museum threw blue vegetable dye onto Andre’s work. The liquid was easily washed off and no damage was done.)

Francisco Goya, etchings from the series “The Disasters of War” / paint

(In 2003, English artists Jake and Dinos Champman purchased a complete (and mint condition, printed directly from the artist’s plates) set of etchings from Goya’s famous 19th-century series.  The brothers then added comical grotesque faces to the etchings, ultimately presenting them as a series titled “Insult to Injury.“

A number of the works were damaged when a man named Aaron Barschak threw red paint at them while they were on view in the Chapmans’ 2003 exhibition The Rape of Creativity.)

Adolf Hitler, various untitled watercolors / paint

(In 2008, English artists Jake and Dinos Chapman acquired  a group of original watercolors painted by Adolf Hitler. The brothers painted bright psychedelic skies and smiley faces onto the works, ultimately presenting them in an exhibition titled “If Hitler had been a hippy, how happy would we be”.)

Leonardo da Vinci “Mona Lisa” (postcard reproduction) / pencil

(In 1919, artist Marcel Duchamp used a pencil to drew a mustache and beard on a cheap postcard reproduction of da Vinci’s iconic portrait. Beneath the image, he wrote “L.H.O.O.Q.,” which, when read aloud, sounds like “Elle a chaud au cul”, translated as “She has a hot ass,” or alternatively “there is fire down below.”

He later presented an untouched black and white reproduction of the Mona Lisa, mounted on card, as a work titled “L.H.O.O.Q., Shaved.”)

Marcel Duchamp “Fountain” / hammer, urine

(Duchamp’s infamous 1917 sculpture has been vandalized (or “intervened”) on numerous occasions:

1) Musician/artist Brian Eno claimed to be the first to urinate into the work, while it was on display at the MOMA in 1995. As he wrote in his book A Year With Swollen Appendices: “I positioned myself before the display case, concentrating intensely on its contents. There was a guard standing behind be and 12 feet away. I opened my fly and slipped out the tube, feeding it carefully through the slot in the glass. It was a perfect fit and slid in quite easily until its end was poised above the famous john. I released my thumb and a small but distinct trickle of my urine splashed on the work of art.”

2) French artist Pierre Pinoncelli urinated into the piece while it was on display in Nimes, France in 1993.  Later, in 2006, while “Fountain” was on display in Paris, the then 76-year-old Pinoncelli attacked the work with a hammer, causing a slight chip. Upon being arrested, Pinoncelli said the attack was a work of performance art that Duchamp himself would have appreciated.

3) Chinese performance art duo Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi urinated on the work while it was on display in London in 2000. They were prevented from soiling the sculpture directly by its Perspex case. When asked why they felt they had to add to Duchamp’s work, Chai said, “The urinal is there – it’s an invitation. As Duchamp said himself, it’s the artist’s choice. He chooses what is art. We just added to it.”

4) South African artist Kendell Geers urinated into the work while it was on display in Venice in 1993.

5) Swedish artist Björn Kjelltoft urinated into the work while it was on diplay in Stockholm in 1999.)

In 1983, while visiting the Ducal Palace in Venice, a man named Stephen Daniel Hellena used a knife to cut an unnamed 17th-century painting out of its frame and then ripped it into shreds with his hands. While being tackled to the ground by security, Hellena shouted, “I protest against the marketing of art works for vile money!”

Francois Boucher (unidentified artwork) / ink

In 1912, a woman vandalized a portrait by 18th-century painter Francois Boucher, coloring in the eyes, nose, and mouth of  with red ink and a paint brush. 

After initially giving the false name Delaure Frolaine, the culprit was eventually identified as Prolaine Delarre, a Parisian seamstress. Explaining her actions, she said, “I am miserably hungry and have been unable to find work. I often go to the Louvre, and the sight of the young woman in the picture with a happy smile and luxurious clothes maddened me. I decided to mutilate her hateful face in the hope that perhaps after that people would notice me and save me from starving.” With that she added, “The picture displeased me and I wished to correct what I considered wrong.”

Barnett Newman “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue (IV)” / security barrier, paper

(In 1982, a 29-year old veterinary student named Josef Nikolaus Kleer attacked this painting while it was on display at the National Galerie in Berlin. He first used a security barrier to hit the painting a few times, and then placed a series of notes and media pictures on and around it, including an issue of Der Spiegel featuring a caricatured Margaret Thatcher on the cover; a copy of Red List, an official German pharmaceutical catalog; and numerous hand-written notes bearing slogans like, “Whoever does not yet understand it must pay for it! Price: on arrangement.“

When Kleer later admitted to the attack, he said it was because the painting was a perversion of the German flag, and that public funds should not be used to buy art because artists earned too much money.)

David Hammons “How Ya Like Me Now?” / sledgehammers

(In 1989, Hammon’s altered portrait of politician Jesse Jackson was installed on the corner of Seventh and G in Washington DC, in conjunction with the Washington Project for the Arts’ outdoor exhibition “The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism.”

Shortly after handlers completed the installation process,  a group of ten black men - who regarded the work as demeaning and racist - used sledgehammers to attack it and knock it down from its scaffolding. (Hammons, himself a black man, said the men had misinterpreted the work, pointing out that it was intended as a denouncement of racism.)

When the demolished work was re-installed (in its damaged state) in the indoor gallery space of the WPA, Jackson himself gave a speech about the work and its assault. Saying he “got a kick” from the work, Jackson said, “Sometimes art provokes; sometimes it angers. That is a measure of its success. Sometimes it inspires creativity. Maybe the sledgehammers should have been on display too.”)

Susan Burns

(In 2011, 56-year old Burns visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which was holding a Gaugin retrospective at the time. Upon seeing Gaugin’s “Two Tahitian Women,” she tried to wrench the painting from the wall and, unable to do so, began slamming it with her fists. Because the painting was protected by a transparent acrylic shield, however, no damage was done to the work itself.

After being arrested, Burns said, “I feel that Gauguin is evil. He has nudity and is bad for the children. He has two women in the painting and it’s very homosexual. I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned.” She also warned the police, saying, “I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you.”)

Paul Gaugin “Two Tahitian Women” / fists

(In 2011, a 56-year old woman named Susan Burns visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which was holding a Gaugin retrospective at the time. Upon seeing this painting, she tried to wrench the painting from the wall and, unable to do so, began punching it with her fists. Because the painting was protected by a transparent acrylic shield, however, no damage was done.

After being arrested, Burns said, “I feel that Gauguin is evil. He has nudity and is bad for the children. He has two women in the painting and it’s very homosexual. I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned.” She also warned the police, saying, “I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you.”)

(Over the course of ten months in 1985, a demented biology professor broke the noses off of eighty stone statues installed in Rome’s Villa Borghese Gardens, including notable works by the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Upon his arrest, police discovered that the man was carrying all of the noses with him in a plastic bag. When asked why he had attacked the statues, he claimed, “The KGB are after me.” He then gave the police a slip of paper on which he’d written, “I am a UFO.”)

In 1945, a man named Edward Morse confessed to vandalizing nine paintings in the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven and the Peabody Museum in Cambridge. Morse, later an inmate of the Middletown State Hospital, confessed that he’d attacked the works - all portraits - because the faces of the subjects resembled persons who had come to his home when he was a young boy and threatened to harm his mother.

Rembrandt “The Night Watch” / butter knife, acid, city officials

(This 1642 painting has been damaged by vandals on numerous occasions:

1.) In 1715, the town fathers of Amsterdam decided to install the painting in their Town Hall. Because the painting was too large to fit in their chosen display location, they proceeded to cut off sections of the painting on all four sides. They removed two figures on the left side of the painting as well as the top of the arch, the balustrade, and the edge of the step.)

2.) During World War I, an unemployed shoemaker made several knife slashes in the artwork to protest his inability to find work.

3.) In 1975, an unemployed school teacher named Wilhelmus de Rijk attacked it with a bread knife, resulting in a large zig-zag of slashes. It was successfully restored, although some evidence of the damage is still observable up close. (Learn more here: http://art-damaged.tumblr.com/post/172346857520/rembrandt-the-night-watch-1642-bread-knife-in)

4.) In 1990, a man sprayed acid onto the painting with a concealed pump bottle. Security guards intervened and water was quickly sprayed onto the canvas. The resulting damage was minimal - the acid had only penetrated the varnish layer - and the painting was fully restored.

Nan Goldin “Nan and Brian in Bed” (MOMA ad) / poster

(In 2009, MOMA ran an advertising campaign in which it reproduced 57 works from its permanent collection and plastered the images around Brooklyn’s Atlantic-Pacific subway station. The works were soon “re-mixed” by a street artist known as Poster Boy. Interestingly, his accomplice in these acts was Doug Jaeger, the marketing executive who created the campaign for MoMA. One night around 2am, Poster Boy and Jaeger, both wearing official MoMA jackets, convinced MTA security that they were there on official business, and proceeded to glue images strategically onto the various reproductions. When they were done “re-mixing,” Jaeger staged a fashion shoot in front of Poster Boy’s reworked creations, using hired models and a professional photographer. MOMA denied any complicity with Poster Boy.)