Eugene Delacroix “La Liberté Guidant le Peuple” (1830) / permanent marker

(Shortly before closing time on February 7, 2013, a 28-year-old woman used a permanent marker to deface this painting while it was on view at Louvre-Lens, the Louvre’s outpost in northern France. The woman scrawled a message at the bottom right corner of the work reading “AE911,” which authorities believe refers to the abbreviation for the conspiracy theory group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. The woman was immediately apprehended; the damage was thought to be superficial and easily repairable.

Lens mayor Guy Delcourt said the woman had “told security, in a rather incoherent manner, that she wanted to put her mark” on the painting. Prosecutors did not release the woman’s identity, but said she was unemployed, had a master’s degree, did not have a criminal record, and would likely be hospitalized in a psychiatric facility prior to potential prosecution.)