> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Crimes of the Art
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/crimes-of-the-art-31/
- Published: 2015-09-22T23:19:47.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:40:01.000Z
- Description: On this week's art crime blotter: vandals tag a Munich museum with swastikas, hunters venture onto Texan museum's grounds, and a public sculpture is mysteriously beheaded.
- Author: Benjamin Sutton
- Tags: News, Art Crime, Christian Boltanski, Crimes of the Art, Haus der Kunst, Public Art, Vandalism, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3)

![Detail of Christian Boltanski's exhibition 'Résistance' at the Haus der Kunst (photo by @re_daria/Instagram)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/09/crimes-art-boltanski-munich.jpg)

Detail of Christian Boltanski’s exhibition ‘Résistance’ at the Haus der Kunst (photo by @re\_daria/Instagram)

[*Crimes of the Art*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/crimes-of-the-art/) *is a weekly survey of artless criminals’ cultural misdeeds. Crimes are rated on a highly subjective scale from one “Scream” emoji — the equivalent of a vandal tagging the exterior of a local history museum in a remote part of the US — to five “Scream” emojis — the equivalent of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist.*

## Anti-Semitic Vandals Strike Munich Museum

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-4.jpg)

Vandals [defaced](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/anti-semitic-graffiti-haus-der-kunst-vandalism-333726?ref=hyperallergic.com) two installations at the Haus der Kunst in Munich with white chalk, scrawling swastikas over [an installation](http://www.hausderkunst.de/en/agenda/detail/christian-boltanski-resistance-1/?ref=hyperallergic.com) by Christian Boltanski featuring photos of anti-Nazi Resistance fighters arrested during World War II and drawing a Star of David over an installation by Gustav Metzger.

**Verdict:** A cowardly act made all the more impotent due to the vandals’ use of chalk.

## Painter’s Messy Carpet Sold Off

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-2](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-2.jpg)

A paint-splattered carpet that had been in painter Angelique Hartigan’s studio in London’s [Gipsy Hill Workshops](http://www.gipsyhillworkshops.co.uk/Creatives-in-Crystal-Palace.aspx?ref=hyperallergic.com) was allegedly [put up for sale](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11867365/Gallery-sold-artists-paint-spattered-carpet-as-her-own-work.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) as one of her original works after she moved to a new space.

**Verdict:** It was only a matter of time before someone came up with another way to monetize artists’ studios.

## Worst Fate for Public Art in Worcester

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-1.jpg)

A total of six sculptures featured in this year’s edition of Worcester’s [Art in the Park](http://www.artintheparkworcester.org/AIPW%5Fhome.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) exhibition have been attacked this summer, most recently with Lisa Simonds’s piece “Silueta” — a lifesize female figure made of plywood piece — being [decapitated](http://www.telegram.com/article/20150918/NEWS/150919162?ref=hyperallergic.com).

**Verdict:** Folks in Western Massachusetts are really losing their heads over outdoor sculpture.

## Hunters Shoot Up Museum Grounds

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-4.jpg)

Staff at the [Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary](http://www.heardmuseum.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) in McKinney, Texas, have found evidence of illegal hunting including deer corn and shotgun shells on the 289-acre wildlife sanctuary over which the museum presides. “We want to be able to keep our wildlife safe and also be able to keep our visitors safe,” Stephanie Jennings, marketing director at the Heard, [told NBCDFW](http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Illegal-Hunting-at-Heard-Museum-328292471.html?ref=hyperallergic.com). “If we allow hunting here, that kinda goes against our message.”

**Verdict:** Maybe it’s time the Heard introduce a guns-for-admission trade-in program.