The most inspiring works of art can take months, if not years, to create. The Recent Mona Lisa Art Attack has left all of us in shock. Artists put their expertise, creativity, and feelings into their art. Their finished products are rich in meaning and thus personal significance, and their worth cannot be accurately evaluated, at least until they are sold to the highest bidder.
The following notable works of art cost a lot of money were important to the art community and were sadly ruined due to carelessness, negligence, anger, or pure lunacy, causing the creators’ enormous despair – or to roll over in their graves.
A man dressed as an elderly woman in a wheelchair threw a cake at the iconic Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci, which is on display at the Louvre in Paris. The painting, however, remained undamaged due to the protective glass that encased it.
Witness testimony showed that the perpetrator was a man in a wheelchair wearing a large wig, according to the Spanish newspaper Marca. To everyone’s surprise, he suddenly jumped up and attempted to destroy the bulletproof glass of the Mona Lisa Painting before smearing cake on the glass.
Soon after the art attack, a Twitter user shared another video of a young man being escorted away by security officials pulling an empty wheelchair beside him. He was dressed in white jeans and a T-shirt, with an orange scarf around his neck. He also appeared to be wearing a wig, which was black.
He raised his arms and shouted out in French as he was ushered away: “Think about the Earth, think about the Earth, there are people who are destroying the Earth, think about it! All the artists tell you think about the Earth, all artists think about the Earth, that’s why I did this. Think about the Planet!”
His words aroused rumors that the art attack was done as a climate change protest.
5 Other Iconic Incidents of Art Attacks like the Recent Mona Lisa Painting Attack
- “Night Watch” by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642
An unemployed navy cook tried to cut it with a knife in 1911 but was unsuccessful.
A schoolteacher slashed zigzag lines into it more successfully in 1975, and while the painting was restored, evidence of the damage can still be seen. The man was eventually diagnosed with a mental illness, and he committed suicide as a result.
A man splashed it with acid in 1990, but security acted quickly and the painting was saved.
- “Pieta” by Michelangelo, 1498-1499
The work’s most significant damage happened in 1972 when a crazed geologist attacked it with a hammer while yelling “I am Jesus Christ.”
Onlookers took many of the pieces, including Mary’s nose, and did not return them. It was restored using Mary’s back and is now protected by bullet-proof glass.
- “The Actor” by Pablo Picasso, 1904
Consider the most expensive accident you’ve ever had in terms of monetary worth, then compare it to the 2010 incident in which a New York woman fell on The Actor, causing a six-inch tear vertically along the bottom right-hand corner.
She wasn’t punished — or forced to pay the bill — since it was an accident. She did, however, cause a great deal of grief.
- “The Little Mermaid” by Edvard Eriksen, 1913
Since The Little Mermaid is one of Copenhagen’s most popular attractions, the 4-foot figure has been vandalized for several causes, many of which are political, and has had to be rebuilt.
Its head has been sawed off, stolen, replaced, and stolen again since 1964; its arm has been sawed off and stolen; it has been blasted off its granite base by explosives, and it has been covered in almost every color.
- “Rokeby Venus” by Diego Velazquez, 1647-1651
Following the arrest of fellow suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, militant suffragette Mary Richardson — who eventually became the president of the women’s division of the British Union of Fascists – nearly ripped Venus to shreds in 1914.
Despite previous warnings of a probable attack, she entered the National Gallery in London and slashed Venus seven times, mostly across the back.
Richardson received the maximum penalty of six months in prison for the crime.