Man Ray, “Boardwalk” (1917) and “Object To Be Destroyed” (1923) / students

In his 1963 autobiography, Man Ray writes that in 1957, these two works were attacked while on view in a retrospective exhibition of early Dada works shown in a Paris Gallery. According to the artist, while he was in the gallery speaking with fellow artist  Tristan Tzara, a group of students from the nearby Ecole des Beaux-Arts rushed in, throwing into the air pamphlets denigrating Dada and Surrealism in the name of French tradition, and stole these two works before running away. As he chased after them, Man Ray saw one of the students pull out a gun and shoot a series of bullet holes into “Boardwalk,” leaving the damaged work in the street. “Object To Be Destroyed” was never recovered.

Upon receiving insurance reimbursements for the works in 1958, Man Ray promptly created a replica of “Object To Be Destroyed,” with the new title “Indestructible Object.” As for “Boardwalk,” while the insurer offered to have the piece restored, Man Ray refused, insisting that, as a Dada object, it had become even more precious after having been stolen and shot. 

Upon later reflection, Man Ray expressed his satisfaction with the entire affair - particularly the insurance payout, which he saw as having “succeeded in making what was not considered a work of art as valid as any legitimate painting or sculpture.”

Meret Oppenheim “My Nurse” (1936) / scissors

In January 1985, this Surrealist object, comprising two women’s shoes arranged and tied to look like a cooked chicken, was delivered for an upcoming exhibition. Mistaking the work’s strings for packaging materials, a museum employee cut and disposed of them. The error was soon realized, and the work was restored with new string in time for the opening.

Joseph Beuys “Fettecke (Fat Corner)” (1982) / janitorial staff

In October 1986, this work was destroyed while installed at the Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf.

In 1972, Beuys’ professorship at the Kunstakademie was terminated for undisclosed reasons. In 1978, however, the termination was declared invalid, and Beuys was granted permission to use his studio in the art school until his 67th birthday (May 12, 1986). In 1980, he turned the studio into the office of the “Forschungsinstitut Erweiterter Kunstbegriff (research institute [for an] enlarged notion of art),” which was to be managed by his former assistant, Johannes Stuttgen.

After Beuys’ death in January 1986, the room was re-assigned to another professor, and Stuttgen was sent to pick up Beuys’ things. There, Stuttgen found the remains of “Fettecke” (1982) - a “fat corner” work made of five pounds of butter, which Beuys had applied 5 meters high in the corner of the room, dedicated and gifted to Stuttgen - in a waste-paper basket (shown above). 

Outraged, Stuttgen immediately alerted the press. The Kunstakademie’s administrators explained that a cleaning crew, who had “not recognized Beuys’s work as an art object,” had knocked it down with a broom while sweeping for cobwebs and thrown the remains away. Stuttgen, however, insisted the work had been “quite purposefully and consciously thrown down” and, claiming that this “highly sensitive and so individual work of art” could not be restored, promptly sued the Land Nordrhein-Westfalen for 50,000 marks in damages.

statue of Christopher Columbus / paint

In June 2015, a public statue of Christopher Columbus was vandalized while on view at Boston Park. Unidentified parties doused the work in red paint and inscribed “Black Lives Matter” across its pedestal. The paint was removed the following day, with no lingering damage to the sculpture.

multiple statues of St. Junipero Serra / various

Recent years have seen a string of incidents involving statues of the Catholic St. Junipero Serra installed throughout California. Among them:

1. In September 2015, a statue at the Santa Cruz Mission was spraypainted with the word “genocide” across Serra’s chest. The inscription was eventually removed, with no lingering damage to the work.

2. In October 2015, unknown parties used a sledgehammer to behead a marble statue set in the Lower Presidio Historic Park in Monterey. The head was discovered about six months later in a tide pool at Breakwater Cove, not far from where its body still stood. The head was eventually reattached.

3. In August 2017, a statue set in a park across from Mission San Fernando was spraypainted, with “MURDER” inscribed across Serra’s chest, and a swastika on the child standing next to him. The graffiti was promptly removed, with no lingering damage to the work. 

4. In August 2017, a statue was toppled in the courtyard of the Carmel Mission, where the saint is buried under the sanctuary. (An indigenous peoples cemetery also resides on the grounds.) The unidentified vandals also splattered paint on the courtyard fountain and the doors of the cathedral, and desecrated numerous graves.

5. In September 2017, a bronze statue at the Old Santa Barbara Mission was decapitated and doused with red paint. The sculpture was covered with a tarp; it’s not currently clear whether the damage was repairable. 

While no parties have been arrested, and no explanations given, it’s widely believed that the attacks are acts of political protest against Serra’s canonization in September 2015. Critics have argued that Serra, an 18th-century Franciscan friar who founded nine of California’s 21 missions, unfairly treated Native Americans, forcing them convert while relinquishing their traditions, customs, dress, and language. “To many Native Americans and others, Serra is a symbol of the mission system’s oppression. Converted natives were kept separate from those who had not embraced Christianity, and some missions flogged and imprisoned those who tried to leave.” 

Peter Paul Rubens’ “Fall of the Damned” (1619) being removed after having been doused with acid while on view at Munich’s Alte Pinakothek in 1959.

Upon his arrest, the assailant explained that he’d chosen to use acid because, in throwing it on a picture, it was as if one hadn’t destroyed the work himself: “The liquid relieves one from the work of destruction.”

Various Japanese craft works / protesters 

In September 1994, an exhibition of traditional Japanese arts and crafts was attacked while on view in a Seoul museum. Japan had recently proposed a $1billion fund for Korean cultural and vocational projects as atonement for acts committed during WWI—a plan rejected as insufficient in both parts of Korea. In retaliation, South Korean protestors gathered at the museum and attacked the displays, with chants denouncing the proposed fund as “a gateway for cultural invasion.”

Richard Serra “Berlin Junction” 1988 / spraypaint

Installed near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in February 1988, this steel sculpture has been repeatedly vandalized - most notably in its first month on view, when an unidentified party spraypainted “560,000 [DM] for this shit”. The inscription was promptly removed, with no lingering damage to the sculpture.

Graham Sutherland “The Risen Christ” (1960) / ballpoint pen

In 1963, this painting was damaged while on view at the Chichester Cathedral in Sussex, UK. An unidentified 46-year-old woman visiting the church used a ballpoint pen to inscribe her signature on the piece, later telling authorities the work was “obscene” and filled her with loathing. The painting was soon restored and placed back on public view.

Ludwig Gies, “Kruzifixus (Crucified Christ)” 1921 / church parishioners, Nazis

This Expressionistic wood sculpture, initially conceived as part of a proposed WWI war memorial, was offered to Germany’s Lubeck cathedral in 1921. Once installed on a trial run, however, the work immediately provoked controversy among both the parish and the press. On March 3, 1922, unidentified parties entered the cathedral and sawed off the sculpture’s head, which was later found floating in a nearby mill-pond. 

The piece was eventually repaired and moved to the Stettin Museum - until it was confiscated by the Nazis in 1937, who then included “Kruzifixus” in its Munich exhibition of “Degenerate Art” (as shown in the above photo). At the conclusion of the exhibition, the work was destroyed beyond repair.

 Rembrandt, “The Night Watch” 1642 / bread knife

In September 1975, this painting was damaged while on view at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. Wilhelmus de Rijk, a 38-year-old former teacher from the village of Bloemendaal, used a bread knife to carve a series of jagged cuts into the canvas. Even after a guard grabbed his arm, de Rijk continued moving across the painting, slashing with the knife and tearing away a portion of canvas.

Rijk, who had obtained the knife from at a downtown restaurant where he’d eaten lunch before going to the museum, told police he’d been “sent by the Lord.”“I was ordered to do it,” he said. “I had to do it.” Authorities said he had a history of mental illness and was initially held on a charge of willful destruction. In the end, he was not taken to trial, but instead sent to an asylum, where he eventually committed suicide.

This wasn’t the first or last time the painting was attacked: in separate incidents, it was sprayed with acid, slashed by knife, and had portions deliberately removed by Amsterdam officials. Learn more: http://art-damaged.tumblr.com/post/21583538174/rembrandt-the-night-watch-butter-knife-acid 

Vincent Van Gogh, “Le Berceuse” (1888) / Stanley knife

In April 1978, this painting was damaged while on view at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. An unidentified 31-year-old Dutch man used a Stanley knife to make three 30–40cm cuts in the center of the painting before being overpowered by guards and taken into custody.

The man, a struggling artist, said his act had been one of protest against Amsterdam authorities - particularly the Beeldende Kunstenaars Regeling, who had denied him welfare payments that would have supported his artmaking. 

Though severely damaged, the painting was eventually restored and returned to public view.

Paul Gauguin, “Two Tahitian Women,” 1899 / museumgoer

In April 2011, this work was attacked while on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Susan Burns, 53, grabbed the painting by its frame and attempted to pull it off the wall. She then hit the painting, which was protected by a plexiglass shield, with her right fist.  According to a witness, she did so while screaming, “This is evil!”

Burns was arrested on-site and charged with attempted theft in the second degree. Upon being arrested, she told investigators, “I feel that Gauguin is evil. He has nudity and is bad for the children. He has two women in the painting and it’s very homosex­ual. I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned. I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you.” 

The painting was not harmed, and Burns was barred from re-entering the museum. Only four months later, however, she made her way back to the same gallery, this time attacking Matisse’s 1919 painting “The Plumed Hat.” Once again, no harm was done to the work in question.

Henri Matisse, “The Plumed Hat” 1919 / museumgoer

In August 2011, this painting was attacked while on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. 

Susan Burns, 53, repeatedly slammed the painting against the wall, but was stopped before she could remove the work from its mounting. She was arrested on-site and charged with felony destruction of government property, attempted theft, unlawful entry and contempt of court for violating an order barring her from entering the National Gallery [more on that in a moment]. While damage was done to the work’s antique frame, the painting itself was left unharmed. 

This was not Burns’ first time attacking a modernist artwork: Only four months earlier, she had attacked the Gaugin painting “Two Tahitian Women” in the same gallery. Once again, she was apprehended before any damage was done to the work in question.

Lars Vilks, “Nimis,” 1980 / fire

In November 2016, this large-scale outdoor sculpture was damaged by unidentified vandals in an apparent case of arson. “Nimis,” a 75-ton collection of towers built entirely out of driftwood and connected by a massive wooden labyrinthe, was deliberately built on a remote location, which contributed to the level of damage it sustained in the blaze: as the work cannot be accessed by fire trucks, only handheld fire extinguishers and seawater could be used to douse the flames; as a result, many of the work’s edifices—particularly the “Tower of the Winds”—were reduced to charred nails and scarps of burnt wood.

In a published statement, Ladonia’s Queen Caroyln said, “Nimis will be repaired, and grow to be even larger than before… rising like a Phoenix from the ashes.” 

For his part, Vilks suggested that the attack was “a rather brutal form of art critique.” He believed the fire was started by either those opposed to “Nimis” itself (it has been the subject of numerous legal battles, including efforts by local authorities and inhabitants to have the work removed) or those opposed to his controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad from 2007. Still, he considered the damage part of the artwork: “I have my motto: ‘Everything is an advantage.’ You always have to find something optimistic, and art that’s subjected to violence always benefits from it. You have to comfort yourself with that.”

This attack on “Nimis” was the fourth in 15 years; it was first targeted by arsonists in 1985, when two-thirds of the structure was destroyed and gradually rebuilt. 

Peter Paul Rubens “Adoration of the Magi” 1634 / coin

In June 1974, this work was damaged while on view at King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England. Having broken into the space overnight, unidentified vandals used a coin to scratch the letters “IRA” (the initials of the Irish Republican Army) in 2-ft-high letters across the painting’s surface. 

The damage was discovered the following day by a tourist. The police, meanwhile, were already en route, as chapel attendants had reported a burglary: it seems the vandals had also forced open a 15th-century oak coffer, in which tourists place offerings, and stolen some coins.

While the scratches damaged the painting’s surface, they did not penetrate to the pigment; the work was eventually restored. 

Salvador Dali  “Christ on the Cross” (1965) / Rikers Island prison

In March 2003, this (by then already damaged) painting on paper was stolen and, it seems, destroyed, by prison guards after being on view at New York’s Rikers Island prison.

In February 1965, Dali created the work - a surrealistic crucifixion scene painted on 4x5′ paper - as a gift to Rikers’ prisoners, inscribing the work: “For the inmates dinning room on Rikers Island. Dalí.” 

The painting hung in the cafeteria as instructed for the next 16 years, accumulating new colors by way of red and brown splotches suspected to be ketchup and coffee stains. 

At some point, the work was placed behind protective glass - but after a thrown coffee cup cracked that surface, the work was taken down to be reframed. At that point, administrators who had long overlooked the painting realized it was the work of a master and had it appraised: $250,000.

At that point, the “executive decision” was made to remove the painting from the view of the prisoners; after a few years boxed up in an office, the work was re-hung in a lobby used by prison employees, secured in a new gold frame. 

Then, on March 1 2003, four guards arrived for their evening shifts. According to their plan (which they’d attempted four nights earlier, but had called off due to heavy guard presence): the first, a guard name Benny Nuzzo, pulled a fire alarm, while a second dispatched his accomplices to strategic lookout points while he switched out the original Dali for a fake.

 The fake, created by Nuzzo himself, was poor: visibly smaller than the original and wildly off in its replication, with even the forged food stains done in the wrong colors. To make matters worse, where the original had been reset in a gold frame, Nuzzo simply stapled the fake to the wall, unframed.

The next day, other guards immediately noticed the change and alerted authorities. Since prison employees were the only ones with access to the work, and only certain employees were onhand that particular evening, the suspects were quickly rounded up and promptly turned on each other. 

All four men were charged with second degree grand larceny, but strangely, only the three followers were sentenced to jail time. Nuzzo, the alleged ringleader of the whole operation, was acquitted in a jury trial - but not, he claims, before he destroyed the evidence in a fit of panic.

Gerald Minkoff “Video Blind Piece” (1980) / gardener

This open-air work was destroyed while on view as part of the 1980 Swiss Sculpture Exhibition in Bienne, Switzerland. Consisting of 14 exhausted television tubes buried in the ground with screens facing upward, the work was installed on May 24 near a public path - but due to construction delays, the installation took place before the surrounding ground had been leveled and fully sown with grass.

On June 19, when Minkoff returned to take documentation photographs of the finished piece, he was surprised to find the grounds in a finished state, but with no trace of his work. Exhibition organizers soon explained that the tubes had been mistakenly removed and destroyed by Oskar Fischer, the gardener responsible for the grounds.

Once informed of his error, Fischer placed an ad in the paper: “Urgently wanted: 14 old television tubes (uniform format 59x29) to restore a sculpture of the sculpture exhibition not recognized as such and for this reason removed to the refuse dump.” Minkoff, however, refused, claiming he could neither redo his work nor “tolerate any duplicate,” since the piece had been installed by him “specially on the ground indicated to this effect” and was thus “original and unique.” He then asked the exhibition organizers for the payment of the insurance value (14,000 Swiss francs), the reimbursement of his travels, and an indemnity of 5,000 francs.

In the following days, Fischer’s ad caught the attention of local newspapers, who ran pieces with headlines like, “Work of Art Looked Like Refuse: Away With It!” In one article, Fischer was quoted as saying, “I am no philistine. On the contrary, even provocative art appeals to me. It was all a mistake.”

The articles raised awareness of the event, leading to numerous offers to donate television tubes. Minkoff soon wrote the exhibition organizers, saying he was “ready, not to reconstitute a duplicate (a question of ethics), but to execute an analogous piece, ‘Video Blind Piece no. 2,’” on the condition that half his previous requirements be paid and that the new installation be given broad press coverage. But in preparation, when organizers attempted to make Fischer legally responsible “for all consequences arising from the regrettable incident,” both prior and future, he refused, saying the mistake could have happened to any other contractor. Fischer and then Minkoff each hired lawyers, spending the following weeks contesting responsibility and the work’s financial value. No agreements were reached, and in the end, the work was not replaced.

Unnamed public work by Evert Strobos / citizens

On the evening of September 1 1983, nearly 100 local inhabitants of Apeldoorn (the Netherlands) attacked a public sculpture by Evert Strobos, which was in the process of being installed at the time. With the aid of ropes, the citizens unearthed 49 rectangular slabs, some of which had been spray painted with various slogans (e.g., Alles moet plat (”Everything must [go] flat”)).

Interestingly, journalists and police were both on the scene as these collective acts of vandalism unfolded, the former taking photos while the latter looked on without interfering, not wanting to escalate the situation.