Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...

Tuesday 9 October 2007

Vandals and Art

I'm such a Philistine... I have completely different reactions to the criminal vandalism of a Monet painting of a bridge as opposed to a black and white photo of a naked woman fondling a horse in a sexual (or sexually suggestive,) manner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/arts/design/08monet.html?ref=arts
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/arts/design/09serr.html?ref=arts

Security is patently very different from that in art museums and public places in the US. (I have been scolded by guards in public galleries for leaning too close to a painting, trying to see brush strokes.)
The article about the attack on the impressionist painting in France goes on to enumerate other "similar" incidents, the theft of chalices and patens from a Catholic cathedral (surely this was looked at even by the French, whose relationship with Catholic places of worship is akin to that with soap, as described by Twain, as something more than vandalism of mere art?) and the leaving of a lip print on a piece of "art" consisting of a blank canvas.

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