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.)