Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Mad About Art

August 20, 2009 by Marion Maneker

Martin Gayford uses the incident of teacup and the Mona Lisa as a pretext to talk about other cases of art attacks. His catalog tends toward the acts of insane persons but on occasion he finds a vandal or two with a “higher” purpose:

Consider the case of Mary Richardson, the suffragette who cut up Velazquez’s “Rokeby Venus” with an axe in the National Gallery, London, in March 1914. Not only did Richardson have a just cause — votes for women — but her action was part of a campaign that included other attacks on paintings and setting fire to buildings including railway stations and country houses. She was no lone nut-case but part of a movement. Most people today, I suppose, would support her aims though not her methods. There’s a myriad of explanations for this kind of high- profile vandalism ranging from moral disapproval — Richardson disliked the way male visitors ogled the nude Venus — to thwarted artistic ambition.

Mona Lias Teacup Attack Joins Looney Tradition of Defiling Art (Bloomberg)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Missed Frieze? Take A Tour NowMissed Frieze? Take A Tour Now
  • Russians Are Buying Art in the Face of UncertaintyRussians Are Buying Art in the Face of Uncertainty
  • The Class of 2007: Why Are Boom Buys on Offer in New York?The Class of 2007: Why Are Boom Buys on Offer in New York?
  • The End of the Beginning at Sotheby’sThe End of the Beginning at Sotheby’s
  • Detroit Emergency Manager Admits Grand Bargain Produced Unexpected Contribution to Detroit’s FinancesDetroit Emergency Manager Admits Grand Bargain Produced Unexpected Contribution to Detroit’s Finances
  • Where the Analysts See the Sotheby’s Fight GoingWhere the Analysts See the Sotheby’s Fight Going

Filed Under: Fraud, Theft & Restitution

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • British Modernists Draw Deep Bidding in Christie's $42 M. London Sales
  • $10 M. Picasso Portrait Unseen for Decades to Sell at Bonhams
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Miami Sales Report 2015
  • David Bowie Talks About Art (with Julian Schnabel)
  • The Billion-Dollar NYC Apartment of Ben Heller
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor