Neil Simmons “Margaret Thatcher” / cricket bat, stanchion

(In 2002, a man named Paul Kelleher decapitated this marble statue of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher while it was on display at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London.

After chopping at the neck of the statue with a cricket bat he’d concealed in his pants, Kelleher used a metal stanchion to complete the act. Once finished, he waited to be arrested by the police. He later said that his actions to do with “artistic expression and my right to interact with this broken world.” He also told police, “I think it looks better like that.”

The statue was able to be repaired.)