turned my chef d'ouvre inzo a decoupage!"
Claude Monet's 'Le Pont d'Argenteuil' at photosmarval.org
A GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE BROKE into the Orsay Museum in Paris over the weekend and vandalized a priceless painting by Claude Monet. The incident was caught on video which showed the break-in happening around midnight of Sunday, October 7 during the annual Nuit Blanche cultural festival.The youth, suspected to be four male and one female all seemingly intoxicated, trespassed into the museum as the all-nighter festival went on. Even as the alarm was set off, the vandals managed to punch a 4-inch cut into the middle of the canvass that was Monet's "Le Pont d'Argenteuil".
French cultural minister Christine Albanel commented that the vandalism was an attack against French heritage and was "a purely criminal act". The minister pledged that restoration will be undertaken for the artwork.
Claude Monet was a 19th century French artist regarded as one of the prime movers of the art style "Impressionism". The term came from one of his earlier work "Impression, Soleil Levant" (Impression, Sunrise) coined by art critic Louis Leroy and appropriated by Impressionists thereafter.
The vandalised work, "Le Pont d'Argenteuil", was one of seven artworks done by Monet in 1874 featuring the Argenteuil Bridge which traverses the Seine river, according to the Musee d'Orsay website. Monet reportedly attempted suicide in 1864 by throwing himself into the Seine, which became the recurring theme of his masterpieces 10 years later. Monet's work is characterized by bright colors and fluid textures as experienced "en plein air" (outdoors) many of which involve contrasting characteristics of actual objects and their reflections in water, as exemplified by "Le Pont d'Argenteuil".
Security will be beefed up for the various museums in and around Paris. Various breech of French institutions have been cited earlier this year. No arrests were made regarding the Orsay Museum incident.
On a personal note, it seems that today's youth have little regard for lasting cultural heritage. Subjected daily with a barrage of fast moving media, many young people today fail to appreciate the legacy of previous generations. Their understanding exists mostly only at the level of fleeting interaction - things that are transient and can be easily manipulated, i.e. video games, music remixes, spraypainted murals and "photoshopped" web images.
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