There are few things more precious than beautiful works of art.
They can be timeless, culturally significant, they can trigger emotions, represent the time they were made and reflect its challenges.
In short, art is important and looking after art is seen by many nations as a duty for the betterment of humanity.
However, not everyone agrees. Either for publicity stunts, spite or simply because some people want to watch the world burn, great works of art have been vandalised throughout history.
The latest Mona Lisa cake attack is just the tip of this thoroughly depressing iceberg that sees the very best and worst of the human race collide.
Mona Lisa cake attack
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is one of the most iconic paintings in history and just this week (May 30), someone attempted to deface it with cake inside the Louvre in Paris.
While disguised as an elderly woman in a wheelchair, a man wearing makeup and a wig threw cake at the priceless piece, before exclaiming “think of the planet!” while being escorted out of the building.
Bystanders reported the cake-wielding assailant leaping out of the wheelchair before unleashing the baked goods at the painting.
He tried to smash the protective glass in front of the art, but thankfully was unsuccessful.
In a clip of the event, the man says: "Think of the planet… there are people who are destroying the planet, think about that … That's why I did it."
The Thinker’s pipe bomb explosion
An original edition of Auguste Rodin’s 1881 sculpture had resided in front of Cleveland, USA, Museum of Art since 1917.
However, on one fateful day in 1970, a pipe bomb exploded the bottom half of the statue.
Police believe members of the radical Weather Underground were responsible, though they were later killed in the explosion of the Greenwich Village townhouse that served as their bomb-making facility.
The damage done to The Thinker was beyond repair, but it was put back exactly where it was and remains to this day.
Couldn’t save Piéta
Michelangelo’s 1499 marble statue is iconic for its detail and intricacy.
Few could deny the work’s beauty, but one man took a hammer to it in 1972, hitting it 15 times and breaking off Mary’s arm in the process.
Her nose and eyelid were also damaged in the attack, with Hungarian-born Australian geologist, Laszlo Toth claiming responsiblity.
During the attack, he shouted: “I am Jesus Christ, risen from the dead,” with bystanders repeatedly punching Toth after the attack.
This senseless act was triggered by Toth's genuine belief in being the second coming, but he was sent to a hospital for two years before his deportation to Australia.
He was never arrested or faced jail time for his destruction of Piéta.
Spray paint frenzy
One of Pablo Picasso’s finest works, Guernica, was vandalised with spray paint in 1974 when a 30-year-old man walked into the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
This man was Tony Shafrazi, who wrote “kill all lies” in massive red text across the painting.
He actually contacted the Associated Press before the event and shouted “call the curator” as he was grabbed by guards.
He added: “I am an artist” as he was dragged out of the building.
The museum never pressed charges against him, and Shafrazi actually went on to become a successful art dealer.
His motivations for the unusual stunt remain unclear to this day.
Three fights against The Night Watch
Rembrandt’s 1642 masterpiece, The Night Watch, was attacked not once but three times across the 20th century.
In 1911, a former navy cook approached the painting with a knife and attempted to slash it open.
Thankfully, the material proved too thick and he was unable to damage it in a significant way.
Decades later in 1975, William de Rijk slashed the art multiple times with a knife.
It took six months for it to be repaired and still to this day the cut marks can be seen.
William was put in a psychiatric hospital, before dying by suicide one year later.
Later, in 1990, a man chucked a substance believed to be sulphuric acid onto the painting.
Mercifully, the agent was neutralised before it could do any lasting damage.
