The world of fine art isn’t just about brushstrokes and brilliance; it’s also a stage for drama, protest, and sometimes outright destruction. In this roundup of 10 great works of art that have been assaulted by vandals, we’ll travel from London’s National Gallery to a Sotheby’s auction house, meeting suffragettes, drunken visitors, and even a mischievous street‑artist who turned an auction into a performance. Each piece tells a tale of damage and, more importantly, of painstaking restoration.
10 Great Works of Art Vandalized
In the spring of 1914, the Rokeby Venus fell victim to a dramatic protest when suffragette Mary Richardson brandished a meat cleaver inside the National Gallery in London, carving at least five deep gashes into the canvas. Her motive was two‑fold: to draw attention to the imprisonment of Emmeline Pankhurst and to condemn the way male visitors ogled the nude figure.
Richardson later explained that the attack was not merely a political stunt but also a rebuke of the voyeuristic gaze that lingered on the painting’s sensuous back view. She argued that men stared at the work with an objectifying stare, turning the piece into a spectacle of male desire.
The painting’s most striking feature—the woman’s curvaceous posterior, described by some as possessing an uncanny three‑dimensional quality—has historically invited the viewer’s eye to linger, amplifying the sense of being watched. The mirrored composition, in which the subject looks back at us, adds a layer of uncomfortable self‑awareness for onlookers.
After the assault, expert conservators set to work, and today only the faintest trace of the cleaver’s wounds remains, a testament to both the painting’s resilience and the skill of modern restoration.
9 The Fall Of The Damned
Peter Paul Rubens’ colossal canvas The Fall Of The Damned, completed in 1620, captures the chaotic descent of rebel angels from heaven into the infernal abyss, a scene brimming with muscular figures and dramatic chiaroscuro. Measuring nearly three metres tall, the painting overwhelms viewers with its sheer scale and the raw emotion of its tormented subjects.
In 1959, a disgruntled individual drenched the work in acid, claiming the corrosive liquid “relieves one from the work of destruction,” a twisted rationale akin to saying a gun eases the act of shooting. The acid ate through layers of pigment, leaving irreversible scars on the masterpiece.
Restorers have painstakingly consulted Rubens’ original sketches to guide their efforts, yet the corrosive damage proved permanent in several sections, forever altering the visual narrative of the piece.
8 Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic portrait has weathered more than its share of assaults. In 1956, the painting suffered two separate attacks: a splash of acid and a thrown rock, both of which left only superficial marks thanks to the protective glass that had already been installed.
More recently, a Russian woman denied French citizenship hurled an empty cup at the canvas. The Louvre’s bullet‑proof glass effortlessly deflected the projectile, sparing the world’s most valuable painting from any real harm.
7 Ivan The Terrible And His Son
Ilya Repin’s haunting tableau Ivan The Terrible And His Son portrays the infamous tsar cradling his mortally wounded heir, a scene that has long sparked controversy in Russia. In May 2018, a heavily intoxicated visitor seized a metal barrier pole and barreled through the protective glass, rending the canvas with a violent swipe.
Fortunately, the pole missed the central figures, tearing only a peripheral portion of the work. The attacker later confessed that a binge of vodka left him overwhelmed and compelled to act.
This was not the first assault on Repin’s masterpiece; in 1913, the artist himself repaired a slashing inflicted by an earlier vandal, a testament to the painting’s turbulent history.
Restoration experts now face the daunting task of mending the 2018 damage, a process expected to span several years before the canvas can be fully displayed again.
6 La Berceuse
Just days before he famously sliced off his own ear, Vincent van Gogh began work on La Berceuse, a tender depiction of a woman in a rocking chair, gently holding a rope that would lull an unseen child. Van Gogh’s obsessive devotion to the piece continued even after his hospitalization, during which he reportedly sang lullabies to the imagined infant.
The painting exists in five versions, yet one of these was brutally slashed three times by a self‑styled “artist” while on loan to Amsterdam’s Municipal Museum. The motives behind the attack remain a mystery.
Van Gogh’s own oeuvre has not been immune to vandalism; in 1978, a visitor at the Van Gogh Museum carved a massive “X” across his famed Self‑Portrait with Grey Felt Hat. Though the damage is still visible from certain angles, careful restoration has mitigated the worst of it.
The perpetrator behind the 1960s slashing was deemed mentally unstable and subsequently confined to a psychiatric institution.
5 Argenteuil Basin With A Single Sailboat
In 2012, a visitor named Andrew Shannon stormed the National Gallery of Ireland and delivered a powerful fist‑punch to Claude Monet’s serene Argenteuil Basin With A Single Sailboat. The 1874 masterpiece, valued at roughly $10 million, suffered a deep gouge that left the canvas visibly scarred.
Shannon later claimed his violent act was a form of retaliation against the state, though his exact reasoning remained vague. The damage was severe enough to require an 18‑month restoration campaign.
Monet himself was no stranger to self‑destruction; in 1908 he deliberately destroyed several of his own paintings shortly before they were to be exhibited, dissatisfied with the results.
After a year and a half of meticulous work, conservators succeeded in restoring the work to a condition that closely resembles its original luminous quality.
4 The Night Watch
Rembrandt’s 1642 masterpiece The Night Watch showcases a bustling militia company bathed in dramatic light and shadow. In 1975, a man armed with a bread knife stormed the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, slashing the canvas more than a dozen times, primarily across its lower half.
The assailant, who later claimed he acted “for the Lord,” also managed to rip a sizeable piece of canvas from the centre of the composition while fending off a security guard with his other hand. His mental health history suggested a deeper psychological motive.
In an unprecedented move, the museum opted to conduct the restoration publicly, allowing visitors to watch the painstaking process unfold within the gallery itself. Work began in July 2019, marking the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death.
3 Guernica
Pablo Picasso’s monumental anti‑war canvas Guernica was defaced in 1974 when activist Tony Shafrazi spray‑painted the bold slogan “Kill Lies All” across its surface while the work was on loan to MoMA. The red graffiti stretched roughly a foot high, starkly contrasting with the monochrome palette.
When confronted, Shafrazi declared, “I’m an artist, and I wanted to tell the truth,” explaining that his act was a reaction to the pardoning of a U.S. officer involved in the My Lai massacre.
Quickly, museum staff sealed the room and enlisted restoration specialists who, thanks to the protective varnish, were able to wipe away the spray paint within an hour, leaving the original painting essentially untouched.
2 The Virgin And Child With St. Anne And St. John The Baptist
Leonardo da Vinci’s charcoal and chalk drawing, known as The Burlington House Cartoon, dates to around 1510 and serves as a preparatory study for a lost painting. Its delicate medium makes it exceptionally vulnerable.
In 1987, gunman Robert Cambridge fired a sawed‑off shotgun from a distance of just over two metres, blasting a 15‑centimetre hole through the Virgin’s flowing dress. He later claimed the act was a protest against Britain’s political, social, and economic climate.
Cambridge concealed the weapon beneath his coat, striking the protective glass before the projectile shattered the paper beneath. Though the damage was severe, conservators painstakingly gathered the minuscule fragments and reassembled them, rendering the wound virtually invisible.
The shooter was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to a mental health facility, while the drawing, valued at $35 million at the time, returned to display after meticulous restoration.
1 Girl With Balloon (Love Is In The Bin)
Created in 2004, Banksy’s iconic Girl With Balloon arrived at a Sotheby’s auction encased in a heavy, ornate frame. The frame concealed a built‑in shredding device, a twist that would later become the work’s most infamous moment.
When the hammer fell on the $1.3 million piece in October 2018, someone onstage flipped the switch, activating the shredder. The canvas cascaded through the frame, and roughly two‑thirds of the image were instantly torn apart.
According to Banksy, a mechanical malfunction halted the shredder mid‑action, leaving the remainder of the work draped like a shredded fringe. The piece was promptly renamed Love Is In The Bin and, paradoxically, its value surged.
The new owner, unfazed by the partial destruction, embraced the altered artwork and completed the purchase, while Sotheby’s spokesperson quipped that the act had created a brand‑new work rather than merely destroying one.