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.)