Crimes against Art: Social Meanings and Symbolic Attacks

Modern society has learned to its regret that terrorists can effectively grab headlines and focus public discourse by well-timed attacks against symbols of the state. Assassinations, random acts of violence, and attacks on publicly valued artifacts can be used to publicize an attacker's grievance—whether real or imagined. Since control over the meaning of such a visible attack is a valued asset, both the attacker and the guardians of public order attempt to construct persuasive explanations of what has occurred. Such explanations are typically presented through press accounts and, when effective, constitute a suitable motive for a dramatic story. In this article we examine one class of these attacks and the explanations for them: that of “crimes against art”—physical attacks on prominent works of art. We draw material from four attacks on art works: the 1914 hacking of Velazquez's “Rokeby Venus;” the 1972 hammer attack on Michelangelo's “Pieta;” the 1975 slashing of Rembrandt's “The Night Watch;” and the ...