Andres Serrano (some NSWF images) has made controversial art for decades, with his piece
Piss Christ causing controversy shortly after it was created in 1987. In 1989, the photograph initiated
outrage against the National Endowment for the Arts because of "anti-Christian bigotry". Then the piece was physically attacked
two times in one weekend, when it was first shown in the
National Gallery of Victoria in 1997. In December 2010, the
Collection Lambert museum of contemporary art in Avignon, France opened
a show called "I Believe in Miracles" that includes pieces of minimal art, conceptual art and land art, and includes
Piss Christ. The photograph had been shown in France before without disturbance, and had been shown without incident in Collection Lambert for four months, but
around 1,000 protesters marched to the museum on Saturday, and on Sunday vandals succeeded in attacking the picture, breaking the plexiglass shield and slashing the photograph.
The museum is open again, and the damaged work is still on display.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 19, 2011 -
143 comments
Following the vote on Sunday, Mike Troxel of the Lynchburg Tea Party posted the address of what he thought was Dem Rep Tom Perriello, with the comment that activists should add a "personal touch" to their anger at Periello -- who voted yes on the health care bill -- by going to his house. It turns out the address was actually Perriello's brother's house, and the FBI are currently investigating the
cut gas line that was discovered the next day.
[more inside]
posted by FatherDagon
on Mar 24, 2010 -
380 comments
Art Crimes is a fascinating site about the history of vandalism in the fine arts, recently revived by a Frenchwoman who left a
lipstick imprint on a 2 million dollar painting by
Cy Twombly. Other examples include a
British suffragist attacking a Velazquez with a knife, an
installation vandalized by the Israeli ambassador to Sweden,
two Chinese performance artists who urinated into Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, and a
Canadian art student who vomited blue gelatin on a Mondrian. Oddly enough, the artwork that has weathered the most attacks is Rembrandt's
The Night Watch, which has survived two knife attacks (one by an unemployed teacher with a butter knife) and an attack by a mental patient who had a compulsion to fling sulfuric acid at fine artworks. Other art vandalism methods, including glass cutters, hammers, scissors, guns, and ink, are discussed
here.
posted by jonp72
on Jul 26, 2007 -
38 comments
Poor, poor Wiley the dog. One Spring day, she got out of her yard and wandered aimlessly for a while. Wanting to help the lost animal find some direction, some vandals thoughtfully
spray-
painted her. Tragically, poor Wiley has since had to admit her painful secret to the world. She isn't
literate. Forced to admit her shameful problem, hopefully she'll get some
help.
posted by miss lynnster
on May 6, 2007 -
88 comments
The damage wrought by the construction of an American military base in the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon must rank as one of the most reckless acts of cultural vandalism in recent memory. And all the more so because it was unnecessary and avoidable... but given that it was, the US authorities were very aware of the warnings of archaeologists of the historic importance of the site. Yet, as a report by Dr John Curtis of the British Museum makes clear, they seem to have ignored the warnings. Dr Curtis claimed that in the early days after the war a military presence served a valuable purpose in preventing the site from being looted. But that, he said, did not stop "substantial" damage being done to the site afterwards not just to individual buildings such as the Ishtar Gate, "one of the most famous monuments from antiquity", but also on an estimated 300,000 square metres which had been flattened and covered in gravel, mostly imported from elsewhere. This was done to provide helicopter landing places and parking lots for heavy vehicles that should not have been allowed there in the first place...Cultural vandalism.
Months of war that ruined centuries of history.
American graffiti.
posted by y2karl
on Jan 15, 2005 -
62 comments
A few months after his first (donated)
statue, "
Drinker", was
kidnapped, London's guerrilla artist
Banksy reveals a new statue, a £22,000 solid bronze prostitute with leather boots and a
thong,
dedicated "to thugs, to thieves, to bullies, to
liars, to the corrupt, the arrogant and the stupid."
posted by shoepal
on Aug 5, 2004 -
25 comments
Israeli ambassador to Sweeden vandalises artwork. This is front page stuff in my part of the world and I truly hope, but doubt, that he will find himself out of work tomorrow. The question is: what was he thinking? Was it intentional? Could he have chosen to interpret the upsetting work of art in another less disturbing way?
posted by FidelDonson
on Jan 17, 2004 -
94 comments
VandalSquad Always fancied yourself as a "Writer" but don't want to get covered in paint or arrested? This download allows you to deface a train wagon to your hearts content and then upload it to a gallery. Not the
real thing but as close as most of us will ever get...
posted by jontyjago
on Mar 28, 2003 -
1 comment
Man Beheads (statue of) Margaret Thatcher. His "sense of 'satirical humour' left him no choice but to carry out the attack" on the £150,000 Maggie as 'artistic expression and [his] right to interact with this broken world.'
Jury fails to convict and a retrial is scheduled. Perhaps there is a
creative solution to replacing the head?
posted by Shane
on Dec 18, 2002 -
17 comments
Hacked Palestinian Sites Play Long Flash Movie of Pro-Israel Images
Alnakba.com, a political site, is
here. It and alquds.com, a newspaper's site, are hosted by
Intertech, a PA ISP. I've also found at least one other Intertech site that has been defaced (
1,
2). The Flash file includes a list of names of Israeli citizens killed by Palestinians. At the end, the author has placed a link to his e-mail, "dannyzion@matavtv.net." In the source, the hacker identifies as "Hacked By shmaya / Israeli Operation Force. email- shmaya@shmaya.org.il."
The movie is displayed though a single frame whose source is
here. That site points to a
message board. A mirror of Alquds is
here.
posted by rschram
on Apr 15, 2002 -
4 comments
These Posters were an Artbomb that went off across the street from my apartment last night. The posters were plastered over a bus shelter ad and over several other public objects nearby. I was taken aback, as I had last seen those images hanging in an exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. San Jose has a fairly bad graffiti/tagging problem, but I'm OK with this type of thing. Apparently, the SJPD are too (quoted from the Mercury News): "The poster-pasting could be considered a violation of municipal statutes on vandalism, but San Jose Police Department spokesman Steve Dickson seemed more amused than concerned. "It's not something that we would get involved in unless someone makes a complaint," Dickson said. "Then we'd ask them to take them down. People have a right to political speech."
In fact, Dickson broke into laughter at a description of the two posters.
"Hey," he said apologetically, "we have a sense of humor like
anyone else."
posted by JDC8
on Oct 30, 2000 -
8 comments
