Mark Rothko “Black on Maroon” / children
At the Tate Museum in Britain, a two-year-old child managed to cross a barrier and leave hand prints on the painting; the work was able to be restored. Only three months earlier, the same painting had been left with a series of dents after another child had poked at the work.
In 1920, an artist known only as Delivigne slashed a still-life painting by Mme. Cholet at the eleventh Salon of Independent Artists at the Grand Palais, Paris.
Delivigne had been looking at the artwork - a futurist representation of flowers - for quite some time when he drew a knife from his pocket, sliced the painting with two powerful cuts, and then began shouting in jubilation at what he had done. Delivigne later explained that he’d slashed the work because he suffered from neurasthenia, and the picture had been too much for his nerves.
Tracy Emin - various works / various means
Three different works by Emin were damaged over the course of her 2008 exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.
a) “Self Portrait: Bath” sustained damages when a piece of barbed wire was caught on the jumper of a museum visitor, who proceeded to drag the work, breaking a piece of neon.
b) “Feeling Pregnant III” sustained minor damage when a visitor backed into its stand and knocked it to the floor.
c) “My Uncle Colin” sustained damages when gallery staff accidentally punched a series of holes into the work while hanging it.
Michael Landy’s “Break Down”
In 2001, artist Michael Landy held an exhibition called “Break Down,” in which he had all of his personal belongings destroyed over the course of two weeks. Among the destroyed items were the contents of his art collection, which included works by artists Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst.
(Note: He didn’t take it all the way - at the end of the two weeks, his home and dog remained intact)
Richard Serra (untitled sculpture) / urine
(In 1981, artist David Hammons urinated on a Serra sculpture installed outdoors in lower Manhattan. Hammons, who had the act documented in a series of photographs later titled “Pissed Off,” was arrested immediately after completing the act/work.)
Gustave Courbet “The Return from the Conference” / anonymous Catholic
(In 1909, this work - a depiction of drunken priests stumbling down a country road- was bought and destroyed by a private citizen who, as a strict Catholic, considered the work anti-clerical.
Interestingly, this was precisely the sort of reaction the artist had hoped for. Courbet created the work for the expressed purpose of being refused entry into the 1863 Paris Salon, which he felt would bring him some useful notoriety. Things went according to plan: while the painting was indeed rejected on the grounds of its being “an outrage on religious morality,” and was even denied a spot in the Salon des Refusés, the resulting controversy garnered the artist a great deal of attention. Said Courbet: “I painted the picture so that it would be refused. I have succeeded. That way it will bring me some money.”)
(Note: Part of me is a little skeptical that this event actually took place as described below by curator Jef Bourgeau, but a number of publications reviewed the exhibition and gave similar stories, so I’m posting it. If you have any additional information - especially PHOTO DOCUMENTATION, which I couldn’t find online - feel free to share it via the “Submit” option to the right.)
In 2002, the Detroit Museum of New Art staged an exhibition called “kaBOOM!” in which visitors were invited to destroy reproductions of over 100 well-known artworks by artists like Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Barnett Newman, and Willem de Kooning.
While the show was set to run for two months, the exhibit was completely destroyed by the end of its chaotic opening reception.
In addition to destroying all of the reproductions as intended, visitors got creative with their vandalism: Fires were set in isolated galleries using piles of museum brochures. / A wrecking ball, supplied as a means of destroying a particular work on display, was removed from its chain and used instead as a bowling ball, taking out an entire installation as well as the corner of one of the museum’s walls. / Visitors urinated into not only a reproduction of Duchamp’s “Fountain,” but also his sculpture “Why not Sneeze, Rrose Sélavy?” (a birdcage with sugar cubes), before stomping the cage to pieces. / Artist Dana Smith, giving a performance combining Yoko Ono’s “Cut” with Duchamp’s “The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even,” was attacked, leaving her in tears and running naked for the safety of a locked room. / At some point, someone wrote “Fuck Art Rules!” on a wall with their own feces.
The show was not without precedence: the Dadaists famously held an exhibition in which visitors were supplied with an axe and invited to destroy the works on display.
Marcus Harvey “Myra” / eggs, ink
(In 1997, this portrait of Myra Hindley (an English woman convicted of participating in the infamous Moors Murders of the 1960s) was included in “Sensation,” an exhibition of Young British Artists at the Royal Academy of Art, London. Based on Hindley’s widely-known mugshot, the work’s inclusion in the show caused a great deal of controversy in the press, and four members of the Academy resigned in protest.
The painting was vandalized twice, by two different artists, on the opening day of the exhibition:
a) In the first attack, artist Peter Fisher smuggled blue and red ink into the exhibition, concealed inside two camera film cases; he threw the ink over the painting and smeared it in.
b) After witnessing the first attack, artist Jacques Role left the museum to buy six eggs from a shop across the street, returned to the exhibition, and threw four of the eggs at the painting before being stopped by an off-duty police officer.
The painting was removed, restored, and rehung two weeks later behind a protective perspex screen.)
Richard Avedon “Daughters of the American Revolution” / pistol
(In 1986, an unemployed security guard and Vietnam veteran named Ellis Nelson entered the Black Forest Inn, located in Minneapolis, and pulled a revolver from under his coat. While patrons of the Inn dove for cover, Nelson aimed the gun at a large print of this Richard Avedon photograph. After shooting the photo numerous times, Nelson surrendered and was arrested. When asked why he shot the photograph, he replied, “That photo always bugged the hell out of me.”
Erich Christ, owner of the Black Forest Inn and the photograph, decided not to repair the work, claiming it had become a popular tourist attraction as a result of the incident. He was quoted as saying, “[Visitors] like to stick their fingers in the holes and take pictures.”)
Michelangelo “David” / hammer
(In 1991, 47-year-old Piero Cannata, an unemployed Italian, managing to smuggle a hammer into Florence’s Galleria dell'Accademia Museum and attack the famous sculpture, breaking a toe on the left foot. The damage was reparable, as all the fragments from the shattered toe had been collected.
“It was Veronese’s beautiful Nani who asked me to hit the David,” he later claimed, apparently referring to a Venetian woman who had modeled for the 16th-century painter.
Cannata was found to be of unsound mind and spent a brief time in a mental hospital. Upon his release, he gained employment as a museum guide, providing tours of Tuscany’s artistic masterpieces - including David.
He was later found responsible for other acts of vandalism, including:
a) In 1993, police caught him defacing a fresco by the Renaissance master Filippo Lippi in Prato cathedral.
b) Also in 1993, he took a knife to “The Adoration of the Shepherds Before Baby Jesus” by the 16th-century artist Michele di Raffaello della Colombe, on view in the basilica of Santa Maria delle Carceri. At that time, he told police that “a force inside me urged me to do it.”
c) In 1999, he was sent back to a psychiatric hospital after using a marker to scribble on a Jackson Pollock painting then on view in Rome. Upon his arrest, he explained he had actually been looking to vandalize a work by the Italian abstract artist Piero Manzoni, “but I found an equally ugly one and damaged that instead.”
d) In 2005, he spray painted a black “x” on a plaque commemorating the burning to death of the 15th-century preacher and reformer Girolamo Savonarola, set into the paving of Piazza della Signoria.)
Bartolomeo Ammannati “Fountain of Neptune” / various
(This fountain, dating back to the 16th century and standing at the center of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, has been vandalized on numerous occasions:
1) In 1982, one of Neptune’s shoulders was painted bright blue following a win by the Fiorentina soccer club.
2) In 1981, 1986, and 1989, the hooves of the horses were broken off and had to be replaced.
3) In 2005, three young men climbed the statue, damaging one of the hands and trident.
4) In 2006, a drunk man, wishing to have his picture taken with the statue, climbed it and tried standing on its left hand. The hand broke off, sending the man falling into the water below.)
Roy Lichtenstein “Curtains” / pen
(In 1993, Reginald Walker, 21, was temporarily employed as a guard at the Whitney Museum when he wrote a love note to his girlfriend on Lichtenstein’s 1966 painting. Using a felt-tipped pen, Walker drew a heart on the canvas, along with the inscription, ‘Reggie and Crystal / I Love you Tushee / Love Buns.’)
Henri Matisse “Pianist and Checker Players,” “Zorah Standing,” and “The Japanese Woman”/ pencil
(In 1998, three Matisse paintings were vandalized while on view at Rome’s Capitoline Museum. The damage, which included pencil markings and small puncture holes onto each canvas, occurred while a number of school groups were visiting the museum. The culprit was never identified, but the works were able to be restored.)
Gaston Lachaise “Standing Woman” / human bodies, vomit, food, drinks
(In 2006, the Milwaukee Museum of Art rented out its Quadracci Pavilion to the organizers of MartiniFest, a semi-formal event sponsored by Clear Channel Radio. During the event, a group of four men climbed onto Lachaise’s sculpture, groped her breasts while a friend documented the scene a camera phone, and splashed the work with drinks. Food, drink and vomit were also found on and near a number of other artworks by the end of the evening, and in the aftermath, two unnamed sculptures had to be removed from the gallery after sustaining damages.
The problem, according to the programming director for Clear Channel, was not the martinis but the price: “[The drinks were] probably too cheap…Hindsight is 20-20,” she said.)
Pablo Picasso “Le Reve” / elbow
In 2006, casino mogul Steve Wynn agreed to sell this 1932 Picasso to fellow art enthusiast millionaire Steve Cohen. The selling price was $139 million — then the highest in history for a piece of art. Two days after the agreement was reached, however, Wynn (who suffers from an eye disorder that affects his peripheral vision) was entertaining friends at his Las Vegas casino when he accidentally thrust his right elbow through the canvas, leaving a silver-dollar-size hole. As a result, Wynn and Cohen agreed to invalidate the sale. The work was able to be restored, but its appraised value fell to around $80 million.
Claude Monet (untitled works) / knife, paintbrush
(In 1908, painter Claude Monet was set to present a new series of paintings. The works, three years in the making, had been lauded by critics after an advance viewing, and ads for the exhibition, set for May of that year, had been published in the press. Immediately prior to their installation, however, the 68-year-old Monet decided the paintings weren’t worthy of display. Amid protests from onlookers, Monet blotted out the images with paint before slicing the canvases repeatedly with a knife. The works were destroyed and the exhibition was canceled.)
Timur Serebrykov
(In 2008, while working as a guard at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Serebrykov attacked Vija Celmens’ painting “Night Sky #2”, scratching the canvas’ surface with his keys.
“I didn’t like the painting,” Serebrykov told police when they arrested him. “I’m sorry.”
The painting was restored, although it still bears a faint scar.)
Vija Celmens “Night Sky #2” / keys
(In 2008, while on view at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Celmens’ work was attacked by a museum guard, who scratched the canvas’ surface with his keys.
“I didn’t like the painting,” guard Timur Serebrykov told police when they arrested him. “I’m sorry.”
The painting was restored, although it still bears a faint scar.)
Robert Gober “Bag of Doughnuts” / accidentally eaten
(In 1989, a critic/curator named Ed Brzezinski accidentally devoured a Gober sculpture on display at Cooper Gallery in New York.
“Look, it was an honest mistake,” Brzezinski said. “I was hungry. I’d been drinking and I hadn’t eaten anything all day. I noticed this bag of doughnuts sitting on a pedestal. Plain doughnuts with no sugar. I figured somebody had brought them and then gotten tired of them. So I grabbed one and bit it. It tasted stale.”
Gallery attendants immediately noticed Brzezinski’s act and ejected him from the space. By this time, however, Brzezinski discovered that Gober had coated his doughnuts with Roplex, a preservative chemical. “I threw up. An ambulance took me to the St. Vincent’s Hospital. They said that if the chemical was dry, it goes right out of your system. If it’d been liquid, it would have killed me.”
“What is upsetting me is how the art community is now acting like I was a saboteur,” he concluded. “This won’t be good for my career.”)
In 2000, porters at a Sotheby’s auction house in London accidentally destroyed an untitled study by artist Lucien Freud. Not realizing that the work was still in its shipping box, they tossed it into a compactor, destroying the piece beyond repair.