London’s, Tate Gallery, has opened a new exhibition on the history of cultural vandalism. The works on display are cases of premeditated damages to works of art usually exhibited in public settings. Famous works which experienced damages include Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” (by acid, rock, and spray paint) and Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” (knifed twice). Reading the attached article below on what to expect at the show brought to mind, Hans-Joachim Bohlmann, a name I heard a few times while studying art history in college. Bohlmann was a German serial vandal in the late 1900’s and early 2000’s. His vandal fits lead to damaging over 50 paintings valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, by spraying sulfuric acid on high profile works like, Rubens, Rembrandt and Durer. This sort of vandalism along with damages from paint, food dye, knives and hammers are on display at “Art Under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm.”
