Abstract art. Real damage.
A 20-year-old man attacked and damaged a $26 million Pablo Picasso painting at a London mus🦂eum, .
Shakeel Ryan Massey was charged with criminal dam🌸age for Saturday’s incident at Tate Modern.
Th♈♊e masterpiece was identified in local media as “.”
A spokesperson for the gallery said a visitor van꧂dalized the painting and was “swiftly apprehe꧟nded.”
The extent of the damage was unclear. The BBC reported the painting wasꦫ ripped.
The spokespersonౠ wouldn’t comment on the work’s condition꧋.
The 75-year-old oil painting depicts one of Picasso’s ⭕lovers, the photographer Dora Maar, in a semi-abstract style, wearing a hat and green clothing while sitting on a black metal c🐼hair.
It was completed in Paris in May 1944, during the final months of the Nazi occupation, after several of the Spanish master’s🥃 friends were arrested and deported.
“‘Bust of a Woman’ and its as🏅sociated series captures this complex moment of fear and hope that would lead Picasso to join the Communist Party in October 1944,” reads Tate’s description of the painting.
The work was removed from display and was being inspected by꧋ a conservation expert.
According to Tate’s website, the paintingꦗ ha🎉s been on long-term loan from a private collection since 2011.
Massey, of northwest London, was held without b⛎ail Monday at his hearing in Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court.
The suspect indicated he would deny the charge.
He’s due in Inner London Crown Co🦄urt Jan. 30 for a pret𓆏rial hearing.
The incident comes after a fam𓄧ed Mark Rothko painting worth around $11 million was vandalized at Tate Modern in 2012.
Polish national Vladimir Umanets, then 26, wrote his name and a screed about the v🎶isual movement Yellowism on 1958’s “Black on Maroon.🎀”
He claimed he was making an artistic statement.
He was sentenced to two years in prison.
Tate conservators painstakin💛gly peeled off each of Rothko’s layers of paint before removing the graffiti pen stain and reapplying paint.
The work was put back up on display in 2014.
Tate Modern ✤was the most-visited🎃 tourist attraction in Britain in 2018, welcoming nearly 5.9 million people.
The museum, on the banks of the River Thames, offers sev✨eral free exhibitions and has a diverse collection of w🐻orks from around the world.
With Post wires