One of Russia’s most famous paintings, ‘Ivan the Terrible and His Son’ by Ilya Repin, depicting Ivan the Terrible, grief-stricken and cradling his dying son, was damaged in the Tretyakov Arts Gallery on May 25. A malefactor smashed the glass protecting Ilya Repin’s canvas with a metal pole, which supported a rope fencing around the picture. The gallery said the painting was badly damaged. The canvas was ripped in three places in the central section, while shards of glass that shattered in the attack damaged the frame as well. TASS recalls other works of art damaged by vandals.
Mangled masterpieces: Renowned works of art mauled by vandals
On May 25, one of Russia’s most famous paintings, ‘Ivan the Terrible and His Son’ by Ilya Repin, was badly damaged by a vandal
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A screen shows Ilya Repin's painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, damaged by a man on May 25, 2018
© Sergei Fadeichev/TASS Night Watch, a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn, was first slashed with a knife in 1911 by a random man. In 1975, "Night Watch" was attacked again with a knife. And in 1990, a man sprayed acid onto the painting with a concealed pump bottle. It was fully restored later and is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum
© AP Photo/Peter Dejong On May 21, 1972, a mentally disturbed man took a hammer to Michelangelo's "Pieta" statue, the classical Renaissance sculpture. With fifteen blows a vandal removed Mary's arm at the elbow, knocked off a chunk of her nose, and chipped one of her eyelids. The work was restored and returned to its place in St. Peter's and is now protected by a bulletproof acrylic glass panel
© AP Photo/JP The Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez was nearly ripped to shreds in 1914 by militant suffragette Mary Richardson. She attacked Velazquez's canvas with a meat cleaver. The painting is in London's National Gallery now
© Public domain In 2006, three gigantic 300-year-old Qing Dynasty-era vases were destroyed by a museum visitor who tripped on his shoelace. Luckily, a special ceramic restorer had the pieces back in the museum after six months of work
© AP Photo/Chris Radburn, PA On June 15, 1985, Rembrandt's painting Danae was attacked by a deranged visitor in St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. He threw sulfuric acid on the canvas and cut it twice with his knife. The restoration of the painting was accomplished between 1985 and 1997
© AP Photo/DMITRY LOVETSKY In 2006, "The Dream", one of Picasso's most famous works, was the centerpiece of collection by casino magnate Steve Wynn. Just before he intended to sell it, he punctured the picture with his right elbow, creating a large tear in figure’s left forearm
© AP Photo/Emile Wamsteker The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, a black and white charcoal and chalk drawing by da Vinci, was attacked in 1987, when a man attempted to shoot it with a sawn-off shotgun intending to show his anger at the ”political, social and economic conditions in Britain”
© Public domain