France’s iconic ‘Liberty’ painting vandalised at Louvre

[Recursion]

Source: France 24

A painting that is the enduring image of the French revolution and adorned the 100-franc note for nearly two decades has been vandalised by a woman who “tagged” the canvas with an indelible black marker pen.

An iconic symbol of the French Revolution was “tagged” late on Thursday in an attack on a national symbol that forced the Louvre’s Lens museum to shut its doors on Friday.

The vandal, a 29-year-old woman, targeted one of France’s best known paintings – “Liberty Leading the People” – painted by Eugène Delacroix in 1830.

The painting shows a bare-breasted female figure bearing aloft the French Tricolor with one hand and a musket in the other.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20130208-france-louvre-liberty-vandalised-911

---

By a "truther", no less. Sigh.

[hedgehog]

1. Oh no!

[loudsue]

2. That's awful.

Some people are just so frigging stupid.

[Arugula Latte]

3. Ugh. That is a terrible thing to do.

I hope she's not an American.

[Recursion]

4. Yeah. It would be like tagging the Star Spangled Banner and the Liberty Bell

That painting is so iconic for France. Plus it's a brilliant piece of art.

[JDPriestly]

31. I doubt it. I love the painting, but most Americans wouldn't know what it is about or

where to find it.

[1monster]

41. Perhaps not, but every French person and most Europeans would...

Just because (by your reckoning) "most Americans wouldn't know" about the painting doesn't negate its significance on a par with the Liberty Bell ... I'm sure to most of the French people the painting has more significance that the Liberty Bell and the US flag.

[RZM]

5. That's a double whammy of idiocy

Defacing a great work of art AND doing it in the name of trutherism.

I hope they throw the book at this moron.

[JDPriestly]

32. That would be idiotic. I wonder whether that is why she did it.

What a stupid thing to do.

[EC]

6. Why would a truther mark

a French painting in a French museum? It has nothing to do with 9/11 so what was the point?

[Recursion]

7. Gets people to Google the term

*shrug*

Why do crazy people do the things they do?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. To get attention, and maybe become some kind of "martyr."

[kardonb]

13. painting

where was the security guard in that museum ? Usually , at museums in the US , there is a guard in every exhibition room to prevent exactly this kind of vandalism or theft occurring .

[JDPriestly]

33. There probably was a guard and a number of student painters copying the art.

At least that is what you used to see at the Louvre.

They may have caught her because of a guard.

[Marthe48]

37. Toured Louvre 2005

We saw this painting, and at that time, it was in a really large room. Even with guards, it'd take a second or two to get there. People like her are such thoughtless lumps.

[freshwest]

36. CT lore holds that the Statue of Liberty from France is an Illuminati symbol of control of the USA.

They hate anything they regard as pagan symbolism. Here's the tip of the iceberg, they've got tons like this out there. I'll bet that's why this painting was defaced. They hate France although they helped us in the Revolution, because, oh, hell. Take a look at the batshit:

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/chapter3/

[yardwork]

50. I love your posts. You always have interesting information and insights.

I clicked on the link and didn't read too far before I actually laughed out loud. It was this caption:

Washington D.C. An untrained eye might not see the Luciferic connection in this map.

No, we might not see it!

There is always a little bit of truth in the looniness, just as there is in Rush's rants and the rants of the "family values" crew. That's how they convince millions of people to follow them. It's an age old problem.

[Posteritatis]

54. A combination of idiocy and attention-seeking

Those are usually the reasons people go and deface stuff like this.

[austinlw]

9. That's really very sad.

I've been there a couple of times in my life and remember seeing the painting. It's stunning when you're in front of it, one of my favorites in the museum.

[EC]

12. I know what you mean about standing before it.

I feel the same about "The Crucifixion" By Grünewald - I actually fainted right there in the museum from it...my head hit that marble floor so hard guards came running from the other side of the museum from the noise...

[CTyankee]

17. I melted down at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam...it was one of his wheat fields with

black birds...

Did you know there is a rather recent book entitled "People who Cry in Front of Paintings"? It deals with this phenomenon. I've never had an emotional response to a religious painting before but the Van Gogh and Vermeer's "View of Delft" (you have to see the original in real life to get the impact) at the Mauritshuis in The Hague just did me in (Salvador Dali sank to his knees before it, according to a museum docent).

And there's a lot written about Rothko works and the effects they have on people...

The stark realism of the grunewald is quite powerful.

[EC]

20. It wasn't the religous aspect of the painting..

I never had a reaction with Rothko, but a Van Gogh, Dali, or Botticelli will make me weak...and I love any Expressionist... an Oskar Kokoschka landscape.

[CTyankee]

26. Hope you'll visit my Challenge in GD today around 5 pm est. Some interesting works...

[amandabeech]

57. The Seurat at the top of the stairs at the Chicago Institute of Art.

I thought that I was going to fall back down the stairs.

[EC]

59. Yeah, that is a whole wall full of dots wasn't it?

I loved it so much more in person when you actually see how vibrant it is.

[amandabeech]

60. It really is remarkable.

I'd studied it as a part of the art history segment of Art II class in high school. It was wonderful on the paper, but the teacher didn't say anything about its size.

Then at the end of the course, in the spring, our art class boarded a bus and made the five hour drive to Chicago, and of course the Art Institute was the main of our trip.

We walked up that stairs, and WHAM-O!

The rest of the collection at the Art Institute is very good, of course, and includes a beautiful selection of impressionist and post-impressionist art that was au courant at the time the Art Institute was built.

That trip is one I'll always remember.

[EC]

61. I live close to Chicago

so I used to go every year. The trip now is just too much of a headache unless we just take the train and spend a few days, then it's the $$$$ that's the problem.

[CTyankee]

62. I always think I can just jump on the train to NYC and go see the latest art exhibit...

and it's always fine, but what an expense, with the parking at the station, the train ticket (the least of the problems with a senior fare), and getting to the museum...

Throw in lunch and you've got an expensive trip. Always worth it, tho. I just don't go that much anymore. I think I was in NYC only 3 times last year and I always vow I'll go more often (once I've read an art review in the New York Times Art Section!).

[EC]

63. We get to the Milwaukee Art Museum

at least every other month - it makes a nice day. They get some really nice traveling shows. The French Posters was the last show we saw (some of my favorites). I was really amazed at the size of the paper available in the late 1800's for all those posters.

[CTyankee]

64. Well, here's the thing: I also drive to Boston to visit my dtr and we go to the MFA.

Plus, we have Yale's art collection in 3 museums, a veritable treasure trove of art, right here in New Haven. So it is not as if we are suffering from some kind of art deficit. We're good.

The French Posters exhibit sounds excellent. I LOVE local art museums, both here and in Europe. They have such good stuff! Always a big thrill...

[amandabeech]

66. I live far away now, but I'm thinking that maybe I could take a side trip

to Chicago when I go back to Michigan in the summer to see my family and friends and enjoy the Lake Michigan beach. I haven't been to Chicago for anything other than a quick business trip for years and years.

I hope that you'll find a few extra bucks so that you can go every couple of years. Illinois and Chicago seem to be having problems lately. A general uptick in the overall U.S. economy would really help Chicago, Illinois and the rest of the Midwest.

[ChazInAz]

24. Me too.

I had the same reaction to that painting last year at the Hermitage. Standing in a dark room, surrounded by his last three paintings in soft spotlights. The effect was overwhelming.

[CTyankee]

27. I wonder how wheat fields and blackbirds can do this.

I can understand the effect of "stendahlismo" in Florence, because the Santa Croce is pretty overwhelming. But the Van Gogh is so simple and understated.

[JDPriestly]

34. I had a similar experience when I saw the Pieta in St. Peter's in Rome.

And then some years later that exquisite statue was vandalized and glass was put around it.

The effect of the Pieta in glass is not as heart-stopping as it was without the glass.

I wonder whether the sheer magnificence of certain works of art is too much, creates too great an emotional reaction in certain vulnerable people.

Defacing this kind of art is a terrible violation of humanity in my view.

[marions ghost]

10. truther is speculation

wait til the story comes out

[Brickbat]

11. One of my favorites. What a shame.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. She should have that carved into her forehead

if she really wants the attention.

[DaveJ]

15. I bet they'll remove that indelible ink with some kind of unimaginable futuristic technology.

(Can't believe some humans, though, their potential for lunacy never ceases to amaze me.)

[albear]

16. We can't have nice things with idiots in museums like this around.

Pretty soon we won't be able to view masterpiece art with the naked eye but through thick plexiglass. That will be sad.

[CTyankee]

19. unfortunately, it is what has already happened to some masterpieces...

the Pieta had to be encased after that nut took a hammer to it...

The Rokeby Venus by Velasquez was slashed by a woman in the National Gallery in London. She was a suffragist who really picked the wrong target for her protest...

[Xithras]

18. It should be largely repairable

When my mom was a little girl she found an old painting in her attic and took markers and crayons to it (horns, a goatee, that kind of thing). She didn't know that the painting was the only surviving image of her great grandfather (my grandmothers grandpa), but at four years old, I doubt that knowledge would have changed things anyway. My grandmother thought the painting was ruined, and stuck it away in a corner of the attic.

In the mid-90's my grandmother was moving out of her old house when my sister found the painting and my mom explained the story behind it. As a suprise, we all chipped in and took the painting to an art restorer to see what he could do. In spite of the fact that the crayon and marker had been in place for almost 50 years at that point, she was able to not only remove all signs of it, but to restore the color and patina of the image to make it look almost new again.

Most oil paintings are covered by a clear varnish layer. The varnish layer is largely impermeable, and even the ink from a pen has a difficult time penetrating it. In our case, the restorer was able to remove a microscopically thin layer of the varnish without touching the paint underneath, which also removed all of the ink that was stuck to that varnish. After refinishing the rest of the varnish on the painting, the damage vanished. I would expect that the same technique could be used on this painting.

And yes, my grandmother bawled her eyes out when she saw the restored painting. It hung on the wall of her apartment until she passed away about ten years ago.

[peacebird]

42. Wonderful story!

[appleannie1]

21. WD40 will take the ink off. Hopefully they can save it.

[FredStembottom]

22. Good news:(nearly) All old paintings are severely damaged.

http://www.artsmia.org/restoration-online/guercino.cfm

Twice now, our Minneapolis Institute of Arts has done major restorations of paintings right in the galleries where you could come and watch the process over several months.

Turns out most historic paintings that we see in museums are just a wreck underneath ( so to speak).

All those centuries in which the canvases are folded, rolled, reframed, cut out, hid from invaders, stolen etc. leaves most paintings with huge swaths of damage. We just don't know it because they are displayed in restored condition only.

See the above link and marvel not only at what the restorers can do but how damaged these old masters are underneath.

[IMG][/IMG]

[BumRushDaShow]

25. Hopefully the restoration won't end up like this

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

35. Or like this

[FredStembottom]

46. Hilarious!

One of my favorite family memories is watching Mr. Bean w/ my kids as they were growing up.

[CTyankee]

28. Wow, that's amazing! Makes me want to go to Minneapolis! What a great museum!

And the before and after on the Guercino is incredible!

Have you ever read "The Rape of Europa" by Lynn Nichols? I found it fascinating. Here is a descrption: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227540.The_Rape_of_Europa

It chronicles Hitler's grand design to steal the greatest works of art in Europe for the national museum in Linz that he wanted to establish...

[FredStembottom]

45. Haven't read the book but.....

...a really first class documentary was made from it. I believe I have now watched 4 times.
It's sooooooo startling and astounding and the Monuments Men were so heroic.
Would something like what the Monuments Men were trying to do even be bothered with in a war involving America today?

Or would the Republicans see saving works of art as sissified and elitist and use their dominance of the media to insight Americans to spit on the idea?

[FredStembottom]

47. Just wondering if you saw...

.... That part of the Guercino is actually patched with a piece of another unknown painting of a horse and bright blue water?

Fascinating. I visited the process 4 times and saw the horse for myself - now covered for another hundred years or so. I feel like I share a secret!

[CTyankee]

48. OK, just getting up here...will check it out. I love being an art detective and finding

this stuff!

Thanks so much for your postings here!

[skamaria]

30. Great link.

These restorers are true artist themselves.

[malthaussen]

23. Damn, that's a shame.

I hope she gets "tagged" with about a hundred years in jail.

-- Mal

[cosmicone]

29. Probably some woman from Mali

belonging to the peaceful and tolerant belief system who is po'ed at the French anti-terrorist operations.

[Comrade Grumpy]

38. Gratuitous slam at Islam duly noted.

There is at this point no evidence the woman was from Mali or Islamic.

According to the link in the OP:

According to judicial sources, the woman scrawled “AE911” on the canvas using an indelible black marker.

On Friday morning, French media were speculating that the graffiti could be a reference to the “Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth” group, which believes that the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center could not have resulted solely from the impact of two fuel-heavy airliners.

“We won’t know if there is any political significance until police questioning ends,” the museum’s Communications Director Raphäel Wolff told FRANCE 24 on Friday morning.

----

If only you could blame it on the Pakistanis.

[cosmicone]

44. Why would an AE911 attack occur

on French soil against a revered French symbol? And why so soon after France's Mali involvement?

France had nothing to do with 9/11.

The woman may have been trained in Pakistan or had Pakistani handlers, but I'll wait until the facts are in before saying that thank you.

[Posteritatis]

53. Even for your posts that's a bit of a stretch. (nt)

[Ken Burch]

39. Couldn't she at least have been creative and drawn Madonna's bullet bra on it? n/t.

[triplepoint]

40. Is she with john ashcroft's group?

--the ones who object to exposed human breasts...on ANYTHING?

[awoke_in_2003]

43. I work in a highly technical field...

and even grimaced about having to take an art history class in college. It was the best course I ever took. I am by no means well educated on art, but it does something for the mind that technical knowledge cannot. A day at the museum can help shed a different light on life. Asshats like this need some jail time.

[CTyankee]

49. did you see this yesterday?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022337482

I do this just about every Friday afternoon at 5 pm est. Hope you can drop by!

[awoke_in_2003]

55. No, I didn't...

I will pop over. Thanks.

[DonCoquixote]

51. The artist called "Bansky"

made a habit of defacing art, but his schitck is that Art has become an investment for the ultra rich, something the original artists would have hated. It is still bullshit, but at least he thinks he is saving art from the creeps who indeed have turned it into a commodity.

[Recursion]

52. Banksy

And what's really ironic, is a piece of art that Banksy hits actually goes up in monetary value.

[DonCoquixote]

58. It may be one thing for him to hit a privately owned piece

But when someone done this to a public owned piece, it is still a crime. If the Liberty images was ruined, than all people would have had a loss, especially the French.

[rocktivity]

56. This one's for you, Liberty

Courtesy of Jessye Norman. (Buzzkill alert: a shot of the Bush Seniors.)

rocktivity

[Franker65]

65. Crazy thing to do

Her picture should be displayed in every art museum in Europe and she should be banned.

[tabasco]

67. Have to put a moat between the art and the visitors

Fuckin' asshole vandals and kooks.