All I can ask is "why?"

Intruders broke into the Musée d’Orsay early Sunday and one of them damaged a work by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, the latest in a series of acts of vandalism and thefts at cultural sites in France.

Christine Albanel, the minister of culture, said the intruders left a tear close to four inches long in the painting “The Argenteuil Bridge,” from 1874.

The break-in was “an attack against our memory and our heritage,” Ms. Albanel told French radio France Info. She said the intruders, believed to be four men and a woman, appeared drunk and “left various bits of filth” before “one of them stuck a fist into the magnificent masterpiece by Monet.”

The alarms sounded and museum personnel arrived quickly, but the intruders were able to flee, Ms. Albanel said. The painting can be restored, she said.

No arrests had been made by late Sunday evening, according to news reports.

Acts like this one make no sense to me. Why destroy a painting? Works of art should be held sacred and protected, much as a child ought to be. And to simply engage in vandalism for vandalism's sake is senseless.

Posted by: Greg at 10:25 PM | Comments (23) | Add Comment
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