Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen (”Fountain of Justice”) / rope and tackle

On the night of October 13 1986, this 16th-century open-air statue was destroyed by unidentified vandals in Bern, Switzerland. Titled after its namesake figure, Hans Gieng’s famous statue of Lady Justice, the fountain stood intact for 443 years before being torn down by way of rope and tackle. While none officially claimed responsibility, the act was generally attributed to the Groupe Belier, a militant youth organization advocating Jurassic separatism.

Only one person was implicated in the destruction of the statue: Pascal Hêche, a 29-year-old mechanic and Bélier. While Hêche retracted his initial confession and pleaded not guilty to having participated in the attack, Bernese courts ultimately sentenced him to 22 months in jail and fined him CHF 200,000 in damages.

Since the attack, the damaged statue has been in the process of restoration at Bern’s historical museum. The statue set in its place since 1988 is a copy.

Nazca Lines / truck

In January 2018, a truck driver inadvertently drove over Peru’s famed Nazca Lines, leaving “deep scarring” on the 2,000-year-old land etching.

The driver, identified as 40-year-old Jainer Jesus Flores Vigo, ignored warning signs and drove his semitrailer onto to the UNESCO World Heritage site, causing significant damage.

Vigo claimed he didn’t know the area because he had never traveled there before, and that he left the road because of a mechanical problem. A Peruvian newspaper, meanwhile, speculated that the driver actually drove off the Pan-American Highway to avoid paying a toll. A magistrate concluded that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to indicate Vigo acted with intent, so he was detained and released. Experts were still surveying the damage and considering restoration strategies.

This isn’t the first time people have damaged the site: In 2014, Greenpeace activists left footprints as they planted a message there in advance of U.N. climate talks in Lima.

various Banksy stencils / building workers

In March 2017, numerous wall works by Banksy were inadvertently destroyed while on view at the Geejam Hotel in Jamaica.

According to reports, Banksy had stayed at the hotel in 2006, leaving 11 stenciled pieces throughout the property as a gift to the owners. Ten years later, building workers overseeing repairs to the hotel mistook the works for graffiti and painted over many of the pieces.

The hotel owners were “mortified,”; while a company was called in to survey the damage, and are understood to have suggested a paint-stripping service at a cost of around £120,000, the pieces were deemed damaged beyond repair.

Katharina Fritsch, “Lourdes Madonna,” 1987 / various

In 1987, this piece - a commission by the city of Munster - was repeatedly damaged while on public display, resulting in multiple versions having to be made. The first version, set in plastic, was stolen and ended up at a police station; the second, molded in cement, had its nose broken off and was regularly sprayed with graffiti. There were no arrests made; the piece was eventually taken down.

“People got very emotional,” Fritsch remembered. “In the daytime, people brought candles and flowers and stood there singing and taking photographs. Then in the night, drunken people hit her or sprayed her. I never expected anything like it.”

Michael Asher, Münster (Caravan), 2007 / thieves

In 2007, this mobile sculpture was stolen while on view as part of the outdoor exhibition Skulptur Projekte Münster. The piece - a caravan strategically parked in various places around the city over the course of the exhibition - was stolen, only to be discovered shortly thereafter in a small town about 20 minutes outside of Münster.

At the time, Skulptur Projekte publicly mused whether the robbery had been an act of ‘vandalism as critique,’ citing recent controversy over the toxic level of formaldehyde in many similar vehicles. Investigators, meanwhile, treated the incident as a case of “normal burglary,” suggesting the perpetrators hadn’t necessarily realized the caravan was also a piece of art. No arrests were made; the piece was put back on display.

(Read more here)

Ei Arakawa, Harsh Citation, Harsh Pastoral, Harsh Münster, 2017 / thieves

In June 2017, this outdoor installation was damaged while on view as part of Skulptur Projekte Münster. The LED-based piece displayed animated versions of paintings by the likes of Joan Mitchell and Amy Sillman; overnight on June 17, one of the pieces, based on a work by Jutta Koether, went missing. “On Saturday night, June 17th, someone—at least two people—came with an electric screwdriver in order to remove a plexiglass cover and steal an LED painting,” Arakawa said in an email. “The work is 2 m x 2.5 m, so it is not something you can take away easily. We don’t know why they did it.”

“This is a really interesting ‘performance’ in a way, revealing how vulnerable art in public space can be, and how public space can be violent,” he concluded.

The piece was replaced in July. The culprits were not identified.

Koki Tanaka, Provisional Studies: Workshop #7 How to Live Together and Sharing the Unknown, 2017 / burglars

In July 2017, this multi-media installation was damaged while on view at Skulptur Projekte Münster. Late in the night of July 31, an unidentified group of burglars broke into the local university building where the piece was being shown and stole a large amount of the piece’s technical equipment. The piece was temporarily put on hold while new equipment was collected.

The incident was being investigated as a “typical burglary,” as opposed to an intended act of “vandalism.”

Nicole Eisenman, Sketch for a Fountain (2017) / spraypaint

In September 2017, this outdoor fountain piece for Skulptur Projekte Münster was spray-painted with a swastika, a phallus, and other imagery, as well as the letterings “TOY” and “CMS." The unknown culprits also damaged the fountain’s pumps.

This was the third time the piece was vandalized. Twice in July 2017, vandals damaged the plaster figures; in the second incident, an unknown individual cut off and stole one of the figures’ heads. Eisenman insisted that it not be replaced, the piece left on public display as it was.

Yves Klein “Pigment bleu sec (Dry Blue Pigment)” / footprints

In August 2017, this floor-bound sculpture - a shallow wood basin spread with sand and the artist’s signature matte pigment - was damaged while on view at The Centre for Fine Arts (Bozar) in Brussels. A museum visitor, approaching a different work, inadvertently stepped on the piece, leaving white footprints and a trail of blue dust on the museum floor. 

“Even though we have several safety measures (warning signs, a partial barrier and a guard), the man was too fascinated [with the other work] to notice all of that,” a museum spokeswoman said. Fortunately for all involved, the work uses new pigment and sand every time it is displayed; museum staff were able to restore the work in-situ and reopened the exhibition shortly thereafter. ‘It’s not the same as damage to a “unique piece”,’ the spokeswoman explained.

(Note: A similar incident occurred in April 2017, when a journalist accidentally walked on another Klein work at the Musée d'Art moderne et d'Art contemporain (MAMAC) during a press opening for the show “About Nice: 1947-77″)

Yayoi Kusama  ‘All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins’ / selfie

In February 2017, a glass sculpture - one of many installed in an enclosed, mirror-lined space - was damaged while on view at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. While attempting to take a selfie, a museum visitor fell into the gleaming patch of pumpkin sculptures, stepping on and shattering one of them. The gallery was temporarily closed to the public as a replacement pumpkin was promptly procured and installed. 

Sarcophagus / toddler

In August 2017, an 800-year-old coffin was damaged while on view at the Prittlewell Priory Museum in Southend, Essex, England. While visiting the museum, a couple placed their child over an exhibit barrier and inside the ancient sandstone structure in the hopes of snapping a morbid photo. As a result, part of the sarcophagus—which was already in three pieces—fell to the floor, and an additional piece broke away.

The family fled the scene without reporting the damage but were caught on the museum’s security camera. Museum officials are currently assessing the damage.

Said the museum’s conservator: “You can put all the risk assessments in place but you really don’t expect people to try to get into the artifacts.”

Simon Burch, various works / selfie-taker

In July 2017, a set of small-scale sculptural works by Simon Burch was inadvertently destroyed by a gallery visitor while on view at 14th Factory in LA.

While attempting to take a photograph of herself with the work, the visitor backed up, lost her balance and fell over, toppling a series of pedestals.

Three sculptures were permanently damaged and others to varying degrees. No charges were filed.

Christopher Wool “Untitled 2004″ / knife

In May 2017, this wall-sized painting was punctured with a knife while on view at Aspen’s Opera Gallery.

An unknown man wearing sunglasses, a hat and a full beard entered the gallery (after stopping the door to prevent being locked inside), made a beeline for the painting and slashed the canvas twice with a knife or razor blade before running out. No motive is apparent, and no arrests have been made. The gallery’s owner said he has no idea what prompted the vandalism, but in recent weeks had received three suspicious calls from a man using a blocked phone number asking if the gallery had a Wool painting.

The painting itself was damaged beyond repair, though it still hangs in the gallery. It was being sold on consignment, he said.

“On it’s face, it’s extremely suspicious,” Aspen Police Detective Jeff Fain said. “There has to be a reason someone would want to destroy this painting.”

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze “Washington Crossing the Delaware” (1851) / taped paper

In January 2003, this painting was defaced while on view at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. According to reports, Robert Gray, 41—formerly with the agency that provides security to the Metropolitan and the Cloisters, and who authorities said is emotionally disturbed - glued a picture of the twin towers to the bottom of the famous Revolutionary War scene.

Gray told police he was fixated on the painting’s American flag, which to him symbolized Satan. Gray had a rambling letter he wanted delivered to the United Nations in which he called himself a “light blob induced artist.”"He feels, in essence, that terrorists are controlling him through encrypted messages,” a law enforcement source said. “He did say he used Elmer’s glue because it’s water-soluble and he didn’t want to ruin the painting.”

Gray was charged with criminal mischeif; true to his intentions, the painting did not suffer any meaningful physical damage. 

Unidentified painting / blue marker

In April 2017, a man used a blue graffiti pen to scrawl epithets on a student’s painting (the work’s title, author and content haven’t yet been released), then on view at the Metropolitan Museum’s education center.

Ryan Watson, 33, allegedly used a blue pen to scrawl the phrases “Nazi artwork” and “Not slaves” on a student art piece. When a guard intervened to stop him, he allegedly yelled “go back to your country.” The artwork was created by a New York City teenager, and is one of 600 works currently included in the “Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: New York City Regional Exhibition,” on view March 24–May 29, 2017. 

Watson was arrested on charges of criminal mischief and possession of a graffiti instrument. Met officials said they’d be reaching out to the student and would “make every effort to restore the work of art.”

A judge’s order will send to trial a suit by a group of graffiti artists against a real estate owner who destroyed their murals at the 5Pointz site in Queens, New York. 

After a four-year battle, Senior US District Judge Frederic Block’s order, filed March 31, 2017, grants the 5Pointz graffiti artists’ right to sue under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990.

Curated by a graffiti artist named Meres One (Jonathan Cohen) since 2002, the colorful murals were a reminder of a grittier past in a gentrified neighborhood bustling with new high-rise construction. They attracted tourists by the busload and featured works by artists from as far away as Australia and Japan. Graffiti artists had been plastering the walls with their works since 1993.

When Wolkoff resolved to destroy the buildings to make way for a new residential development, artists brought suit to stop him in order to preserve their artworks, asserting a claim under VARA as well as “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” conversion, and property damage. Their case was thrown out, and, without warning one night during November 2013, the owners whitewashed the murals, erasing, as the artists’ spokeswoman told the New York Times, the work of at least 1,500 artists. The abrupt erasure allowed the artists no time to document or preserve their work.

“The court’s order denying dismissal of our client’s claims is a groundbreaking decision for aerosol artists around the country,” said Eric Down of Eisenberg & Down, the firm that is representing the artists. “The message is that if you destroy art protected by federal law, you will be held responsible for your actions…We are confident that at trial both the artists and their work will be determined to be of recognized stature.”

As Amy Adler, law professor at New York University, observed in a phone interview, “Key in this matter is whether the works are of recognized stature, but the statute doesn’t define recognized stature and there’s not a lot of precedent since it’s not a heavily litigated area like fair use. And it’s not necessarily determined by the criteria that the art world would apply.”

William Kentridge, “Triumphs and Laments” (2016) / Spray paint

Over the course of a year, this large-scale fresco was repeatedly damaged while on public view alongside Rome’s Tiber River. Unidentified persons applied graffiti at various points of the mural, which depicts the history of Rome, and which Kentridge created by removing the dirt building up on the walls, using a technique called “reverse stenciling.”

In March 2017, Rome’s Deputy Mayor ordered a team from the city’s refuse department to clean the frieze and erase the graffiti, calling the vandals “stupid.” Experts were confident the damage could be reversed. 

Thomas Gainsborough “Mr and Mrs William Hallett" (aka “The Morning Walk”) / Screwdriver

On March 18, 2017, this 18th-century portrait was damaged while on view at London’s National Gallery. The Metropolitan Police said 63-year-old Keith Gregory was charged with criminal damage after attacking the painting with a screwdriver, inflicting two long gouges which “penetrated the paint layers, but not the supporting canvas.” Gallery staff and visitors detained Gregory, who initially (but falsely) claimed he had a bomb on his person, until police arrived. The painting was taken off-view as conservators determined whether restoration would be possible.

Did ISIS Smash Fake Sculptures in Mosul? 

Experts say that some of the sculptures the militants smashed at the Nineveh Museum in Mosul, Iraq, were replicas.

“According to archaeologists, most if not all the statues in the Mosul museum are replicas not originals,” reports Channel 4 News, London. “The reason they crumble so easily is that they’re made of plaster. ‘You can see iron bars inside,” pointed out Mark Altaweel of the Institute of Archaeology at University College, London, as we watched the video together. ‘The originals don’t have iron bars.’”

“According to the British Institute,” adds Channel 4, “the originals were taken to Baghdad for safekeeping. ISIS probably wouldn’t care about the distinction. One false idol is the same as another.”

In March 2017, two third-century busts from Palmyra, partially destroyed by ISIS, have been returned to Syria after being restored in Italy using 3D printing technology.

The two works, of a man and a woman, were damaged with blows by a hammer during the time when ISIS controlled the city of Palmyra in 2015.

The restoration of the busts is being seen as a tribute to an archaeologist, Khaled al-As’ad, who was gruesomely murdered by ISIS after refusing to reveal the location of hidden, valuable antiquities.

A team of five restorers worked for a month to mend the busts, giving special attention to the faces. In one instance the face had been destroyed, but was recreated using a synthetic nylon powder and a 3D printer, and attached to the bust using powerful magnets. This is the first time such a technique has been used in a restoration.

The busts, which were on view at a UNESCO-sponsored exhibition at the Coliseum in Rome, are currently in an undisclosed location in Syria, and will return to Damascus when the city is deemed safe.

“What the Islamic State has destroyed, we have rebuilt. Through culture, we also wage an ideological battle,” said one official.