Crazed woman slashes valuable Roy Lichtenstein painting
deb...@comcast.net
Austria
VIENNA, Austria -- A visitor to an art museum in western Austria pulled
a pocket knife from her purse and repeatedly slashed a painting by U.S.
artist Roy Lichtenstein worth millions of dollars, a police spokesman
said Sunday.
The woman, a 35-year-old German from Munich, was visiting the Kunsthaus
Bregenz exhibition "Roy Lichtenstein _ Classic of the New" Saturday
afternoon when she vandalized the painting "Nude in Mirror." She made
four cuts in the painting, each measuring about 30 centimeters, police
spokesman Thomas Prodinger said.
The painting, owned by The Rush Family Collection in New York, had been
insured for US$6 million, he said.
A museum visitor and an employee held the woman until police arrived.
She scratched a police officer in the face and bit another in the leg
during questioning, Prodinger said.
"She bit him hard, like a dog, causing a flesh wound" he said in a
telephone interview.
The officer with the bite wound had received medical care, he added.
The woman had been examined by a court psychiatrist, but no details
from that examination would be made public at this stage, Prodinger
said.
The woman did not speak much with officers and had not offered any
explanation for her behavior beyond indicating that she thought the
painting she had attacked was a fake. She faces charges of causing
grave property damage, a crime that carries a punishment of up to five
years in prison. She could later face additional charges because of the
attack on the officers, Prodinger said.
Her purse contained a can of red spray paint and a screwdriver,
Prodinger said.
Sunday was the last day of the special exhibition, which opened in
mid-June. It features 41 works created from 1961 to 1995 by the late
pop artist and had been organized in cooperation with The Roy
Lichtenstein Foundation, The Estate of Roy Lichtenstein and the New
York galleries Gagosian and Sonnabend, according to the museum's Web
site.
No one answered museum phones on Sunday, and phone and e-mail messages
requesting comment were not immediately returned.
Bregenz, the capital of Austria's westernmost province, Vorarlberg, is
located about 700 kilometers west of Vienna. (AP)