A video has recently gone viral from the TikTok platform in which a woman who claims to have been a great fan of Romero Britto destroys one of his works by smashing it on the floor in front of the artist after claiming to feel offended by an alleged disrespectful attitude of the artist towards her restaurant employees.

Destruction, attacks, robberies and assaults against works are nothing new in the world of art, they are even such an ancient history that it practically goes hand in hand with its creation. Although works of art are important and are guarded under various security measures, they run the risk of suffering various damages every day, a risk to which they are exposed for the simple fact that art must be available and be accessible for appreciation.

However, the importance of artistic heritage and its integrity has not stopped various people from attacking it, therefore, we present below 5 cases of attacks on art:

1. The Night Watch (1642)

Possibly one of Rembrandt's most important paintings and, at the same time, one of the most attacked, since attacks on it have been recorded since 1911, when a cook repeatedly stabbed the work with a knife. Later in 1975, the painting would again receive a series of zigzag slashes by a mentally disturbed professor, leaving a permanent mark even after its restoration. Finally, in 1990 the work would suffer another aggressive attack being sprayed with acid, however, the urgent reaction of the spectators contributed to the damage not being fatal to the painting.

2. La Pieta (1498-1499)

A very important sculpture by the most important master of the Renaissance, La Pieta (1498-1499) by Michelangelo, received a total of 15 hammer blows in 1972 in the midst of a delirious episode of a subject who claimed to be the resurrected Christ. The attacker's unhealthy mental state would later be confirmed and he would be admitted to an asylum in Italy. Since then the sculpture has been protected by bullet-proof glass in St. Peter's Basilica.

3. Guernica (1937)

Picasso's famous work, Guernica (1937) is a work that has also suffered attacks on more than one occasion. One of the most scandalous was in the United States by an Iranian artist who, as a protest against the Vietnam War, wrote “Kill lies all” in red spray paint. The painting was successfully restored with an organic solvent, however, some time later the work would suffer another act of vandalism, being punctured with a pencil before being transferred to the Reina Sofía Museum.

4. Venus in the Mirror (1647)

In 1914, a suffragette stabbed Diego Velázquez's work a total of 7 times to protest the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst, a British political activist. The aggressor named Mary Richardson was sentenced to the maximum prison sentence for the harm she committed, at that time it was only 6 months in prison. She admitted that she chose the work with a purpose, since Venus being the most beautiful woman in mythological history, Richardson wanted to destroy her in the same way that the government had destroyed what she considered the most important woman in modern history.

5. Argenteuil Basil with a Single Sailboat (1874)

The most “recent” case on this list was the famous act of vandalism against a Monet painting in the National Gallery in Dublin in 2012, in which said work was punched, breaking into several torn cracks. The man responsible received 6 years in prison, however, he claims not to have hit the painting on purpose, but rather to have been on the verge of falling after losing his balance, resulting in his attempts to stay upright, in a very clumsy and abrupt way of reloading in what was nearby, a Monet painting valued at 8 million pounds.

Sources: Eulixe, Republica, Libertad Digital y El Estudio del Pintor.