A mural by the French street artist Combo in Paris has become the target of far-right vandals, including one nationalist blogger who filmed herself tagging the mural with the message, “Antiracism is a codeword for antiwhite.”
Vandalism
Posted inIn Brief
Vandals Douse Anish Kapoor’s Versailles ‘Vagina’ with Paint
Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning vandals sprayed yellow paint on Anish Kapoor’s sculpture “Dirty Corner” (2011–15), the centerpiece of his current exhibition at Versailles and a work the artist recently likened to “the vagina of the queen.”
Posted inNews
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: Brigitte Bardot goes after artist for using her image, tourists snap naked group photo on sacred Malaysian mountain, and Russia crucifies trash Jesus.
Posted inNews
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: Colorado cops target artist who stacks stones, Chinese authorities not pleased about Forbidden City nude photo shoot, and murder weapon turns up in London museum.
Posted inNews
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: vandals attack Lego superhero statue, New York cops blast police brutality artwork, Cuban paintings stolen in Miami heist.
Posted inIn Brief
Selfie Snappers Smash Baroque Sculpture in Herculean Feat of Stupidity
On Friday two tourists visiting the northern Italian city of Cremona broke part of an 18th-century sculpture they were climbing to take a selfie.
Posted inIn Brief
Artist in Trouble for Tagging Joshua Tree National Park
A tag painted by the Swedish-Portuguese street artist and nightclub owner André Saraiva on a rock in Joshua Tree National Park has sparked an investigation after he posted a photo of it on Instagram on February 25.
Posted inIn Brief
Smashed Conceptual Art Water Fountain Will Flow Again
Michael Asher’s understated drinking fountain sculpture on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus was recently destroyed by a masked vandal, but officials at the school plan to rebuild it.
Posted inIn Brief
Vandal Destroys Conceptual Art Water Fountain
The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) recently lost one of its campus’s most subtle and unusual piece of public art.
Posted inArt
How to Fix a Monet After Somebody Punches It
Conservators are probably the closest thing the art world has to surgeons.
Posted inIn Brief
How to Punch a Monet and Get Away with It
Punching a painting by Claude Monet is never a good idea, as Andrew Shannon learned the hard way last week when he was sentenced to five years in prison for putting his fist through “Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat” (1874) at the National Gallery of Ireland. But if it’s a digital likeness of the $10 million Impressionist painting, like the one that awaits in “Punch a Monet,” all bets — and gloves — are off.
Posted inIn Brief
When in Rome, Refrain from Carving Your Initials into Ancient Buildings
A 42-year-old Russian tourist visiting Rome was arrested and fined €20,000 (~$25,000) for carving a “K” nearly 10 inches tall into a wall inside the Colosseum, the first century CE amphitheater.
