Date: Fri 28-May-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LIZAM

Quick Words:

attack-Amsterdam-masterpiece

Full Text:

Dutch Attack Heightens Masterpieces' Vulnerability To Vandalism

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (AP) -- It can happen so fast, not even an alert

security guard can prevent it: A vandal tosses acid at a masterpiece or

unsheathes a knife and carves the canvas into ribbons.

A slashing attack on May 16 at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art,

which severely damaged a Picasso valued at up to $7.5 million, stunned museum

officials. The vandalism by an escaped mental patient also has curators

conceding little can be done to protect artworks -- short of turning galleries

into glass-cased fortresses.

"You can come in. You can look. And unfortunately, you can also whip out a

knife and cut," a somber Rudi Fuchs, director of the Stedelijk Museum, said

May 17.

Dutch police were questioning the accused slasher, who escaped from a

psychiatric clinic in Utrecht, about 35 miles southeast of Amsterdam. He

hopped a train to the capital, bought a ticket to the Stedelijk and allegedly

used a razor knife to cut a huge, ragged hole in the middle of Picasso's

"Woman Nude Before Garden," a 1956 oil on canvas.

Museum and city officials reacted with outrage to the Sunday afternoon attack

at the Stedelijk, which houses a world-renowned collection including five

other Picassos. At the time of the attack, 2,500 visitors were passing through

the gallery.

It was the third time in the past 18 months a vandal has struck the museum

with disastrous results.

In March, another man who described himself as schizophrenic and psychotic

pleaded guilty to charges that he used a switchblade in 1997 to slash a work

by the American abstract impressionist Barnett Newman. Earlier in 1997,

another vandal was sentenced to ten months in prison for spraying a green

dollar sign on a painting by the Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich.

Restoration experts were able to repair those paintings, but Fuchs said he is

not sure the prized Picasso he described as "superb and marvelous" will be

salvageable. The museum, which bought the painting in 1981 for $950,000, is

insured for the damage.

"Everyone is very shocked. I find it horrible what happened, and I can't

believe it has happened again," said Saskia Bruines, Amsterdam's councilor for

culture. "We must step up security. We must ask ourselves what we could be

doing that we haven't already done."

Dutch authorities said the 41-year-old mental patient, identified only as Paul

G., was a suspect in a 1990 incident at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum in which

someone threw acid on "The Night Watch," a masterpiece by Rembrandt. They did

not elaborate on what might link him to that crime.

The man has been under the supervision of the psychiatric clinic since 1978,

when he tried to hijack a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines jet from Amsterdam to

Madrid using a toy gun. Passengers and crew members overpowered him and he was

arrested and convicted on assault charges.

Amsterdam police spokesman, Cees Rameau, said that after slashing the Picasso,

the man went to the headquarters of the daily De Telegraaf , where he boasted

of his crime to a reporter and showed her his knife. The newspaper called

police, who arrested the man in the lobby.

The work, which measures 51 by 64 inches, was painted in Cannes, France, in

cool hues of blue and green. It depicts a naked woman reclining in a chair in

front of an open window with a lush garden in the background. Picasso's model

was Jacqueline Roque, his newlywed wife at the time.

Fuchs said he would meet with officials of the Dutch Culture Ministry and

other museums on ways to tighten security, but said little could be done to

prevent such acts.

"The public nature of the museum makes it very difficult to protect the

artworks," he said. "It's a real dilemma."

--WILLIAM J. KOLE