Artist Shepard Fairey has turned himself in in Detroit over the arrest warrant for his vandalism in the city. He is accused of over $9,000 in damages to properties. “Can’t talk about anything,” Fairey said in a short comment following his arrest in Los Angeles last week. (more…)
Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner, the central installation at the artist’s recently opening Versailles Palace commission, has been vandalized with spray paint. The work has already commanded harsh criticism for its subject matter and relationship to French history. “It was lightly sprayed with paint,” says the estate management. “The work is being cleaned.” (more…)
A recent article on Arnet reviews the story over assailant Andrew Shannon’s attack on a Claude Monet painting, and notes that he is not the first to punch one of the artist’s Impressionist masterworks. In 2007, a group of vandals entered the Musée D’Orsay and punched a hole in another of the artist’s Argenteuil landscapes. (more…)
Performance artist Istvan Kantor was arrested yesterday at the Whitney Museum‘s Jeff Koons exhibition, after he splashed his own blood on the wall of the space, and signed the name “Monty Cantsin” on the wall, a nom de plume for artists involved in the Canadian “Neoist” movement. Kantor has a history of vandalizing major exhibitions, and was actually awarded a Governor General’s Award by the Canadian government for his work. (more…)
Over 60 artworks at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf have been destroyed, allegedly by janitorial staff, who slashed artworks with a knife and stomped the works’ stretchers to pieces before leaving the destroyed pieces in the school’s yard. “It’s just terrible for the students,” says Director Rita McBride. “The works are irreplaceable.” (more…)
Uriel Landeros, the University of Houston student who spray-painted over Picasso’s Woman in a Red Armchair at Houston’s Menil Collection, has been sentenced to two years behind bars for vandalism. Landeros was facing up to 10 years in prison for felony vandalism, but pleaded guilty for a reduced sentence. “We are heartened and grateful that the judicial process has come to completion,” said Menil spokesperson Gretchen Bock Sammons. “As for the Picasso, the restoration is complete and successful and the painting will eventually go on view — as works from the collection do, in rotation.” (more…)
Eugène Delacroix’s iconic work “Liberty Leading the People” has been defaced by a vandal at the Louvre Museum in Lens, Northern France. The famous work was vandalized near closing time on Thursday evening by a woman described by prosecutors as “unstable.” The museum has already sent restoration experts to examine that damage, and has stated that the work should be “easily cleaned.” (more…)
Uriel Landeros, the Houston man accused of vandalizing Pablo Picasso’s Woman in a Red Chair, has surrendered to authorities at the United States-Mexico border near McAllen, TX. Landeros allegedly defaced the painting while it was on view at the Menil Collection in Houston with spray paint. “I don’t regret anything that I’ve done.” He said in an interview last fall. (more…)
“What is it about Pablo Picasso that attracts vandals?” The Wall Street Journal asks, while contemplating the artistic and social relevance of the recent Picasso vandalism in Houston. The painting, Woman in a Red Armchair (1929), is being restored and will show again soon.
