Art and Artifice
Last updated June 8, 2022
Famous artworks that have been attacked, vandalized and damaged – MSN News
Some of the artworks discussed: Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, The Night Watch, Rokeby Venus, White Cross, Guernica and others
The Bucolic heroic and Rosa Bonheur – review of the book Art is a Tyrant
At the New York Review, written by Regina Marler
"[Her] ... painstaking realism has long since fallen out of fashion, but interest in her life as well as her art is on the rise. This fall the Musée d’Orsay will host its first exhibition devoted to her work; a French postage stamp honoring her bicentennial was issued in March; and recently, the first full-scale biography in forty years appeared: Art Is a Tyrant by Catherine Hewitt. Bonheur described her life as one of “struggle, triumph, and glory.” At the height of her career she had a studio in Paris, a mansion in Nice, and a château at the edge of the Fontainebleau forest..."
Man attacks painting of Mona Lisa with a cake
Story at Chicago Tribune
"...Videos posted on social media showed a young man in a wig and lipstick who had arrived in a wheelchair. The man, whose identity was unknown, was also seen throwing roses in the museum gallery to slack-jawed guests. The cake attack left a conspicuous white creamy smear on the glass but the famous work by Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t damaged."
Jan Davidsz de Heem – Bouquet of Flowers 1674 [detail]
Andy Warhol’s, “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” just broke the 20th C art sale record at Christie’s ~ $195 Million. Warhol and Marilyn Monroe really were a match made in pop Heaven. pic.twitter.com/wcEi8rpt6C
— 𝔻𝕖𝕓𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕙 🇺🇦🥃🖊️ (@DADiClementi) May 10, 2022

Detail of Flowers and Leaves Diamond, Gold and Platinum. Collection Mrs Paul mellon at the VMFA Museum.
Canova sculpture found in garden
A marble statue that sat in a British garden for decades has been identified as a long-lost work of Italian sculptor Antonio Canova... It is expected to sell for between $6.5 million to $10.5 million, said the auction house Christie's.
Story at Yahoo News
Bored security guard draws on top of Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures
"The guard allegedly took out a ballpoint pen and drew eyes on two of the three faceless figures in the piece of art because he was “bored”. His desire to do something other than defend the gallery’s artworks from similar mischief cost him his job."
"....Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures was painted between 1932 and 1934, and had been insured for 75m roubles (A$1.3m, £740,000). It was on display as part of an abstract art exhibition at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center in Ekaterinburg..."
February 10, 2022: Story at Protothema and at UK Guardian
I was at the Delaware Museum of Fine Art, late 1990s, saw that someone (probably a student from a field trip group) had drawn pencil figures on top of a Dante Gabriel Rossetti painting in the museum's Pre-Raphaelite Gallery.
Detail: Rembrandt Lucretia 1664
Detail of pearl jewelry on Lucretia, painting by Rembrandt, 1664
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