Every year thousands of art lovers come to London to admire works of art in art galleries, museums and on the streets. However not all of them have been so appreciative. Rob Smith looks at ten of the artworks in London that have been vandalised or damaged. Thankfully, due to the skill of staff at London’s museums and art galleries, the damage has not been long term and you can enjoy them on one of Footprints of London’s museum tours. Contact us for a private tour of the National Gallery, Tate Britain, British Museum, Tate Modern, Guildhall Art Gallery, Science Museum or Victoria and Albert Museum.

1 The Rokeby Venus

The Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez – c1647-51 The National Gallery, London.

Velazquez’s painting of Venus has become known as the Rokeby Venus after it was acquired by British politician John Morritt for his country house Rokeby Park. Although Morritt bought the painting from a dealer it had likely been looted before that in part of the chaos of the Peninsula War in Spain. Morritt said he hung the painting high above the fireplace so lady guests would not be embarrassed by having to see Venus’ “naked backside” while “connoisseurs could still steal a glance without drawing in said posterior as part of the company”.

In 1906 the Morritt family put the painting up for sale. The asking price was huge £45,000 but thanks to public donations, including a large sum from Edward VII the painting was acquired for the nation and put on display at the National Gallery. The painting, as it still is today, was one of the National Gallery’s most popular paintings, displayed on an easel in one of the rooms.

In March 1914 Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst had been arrested and taken back to Holloway Prison. The next day Canadian born Mary Richardson walked into the National Gallery carrying a notebook, looking like a student keen to make notes on the paintings. When she got to the Rokeby Venus she produced a meat cleaver from underneath her coat, smashed the painting’s protective glass. The room attendant ran to stop her but slipped on the newly polished floor, allowing Richardson to slice six big cuts through the canvas.

Richardson was arrested and sent to Holloway – where she had been on hunger strike previously. At her trial Richardson said –

“I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history.”

Richardson was given a six month sentence for the damage, which caused all of London’s art galleries to temporarily close to the public. The attack caused division among suffragettes – was attacking such a well loved painting counter productive to their cause. Luckily the painting was expertly restored. It is interesting that as a Velazquez painting in itself it is a rare and beautiful object but it is now an important object in terms of the struggle for votes for women too.

2 The Statue of Queen Anne Outside St Paul’s Cathedral

Queen Anne statue outside St Paul’s Cathedral

During the 18th century the East India Company employed Lascar seamen, a very broad term covering sailors from all parts of South Asia, on their journeys of trade from London to the far side of the Indian Ocean. From 1767 on Lascars were housed at a building called the Orchard House in East London, a place now being developed as London City Island. On one night in 1769 a Lascar sailor found his way to the centre of London and started to attack the statue of Queen Anne outside St Paul’s cathedral. The nightwatchmen from Castle Baynard ward heard the commotion and tried to arrest the sailor but were found him wielding a knife in one hand and the globe from the statue in the other. They were horrified to see Queen Anne’s arms had been smashed off and her sceptre broken. Eventually the Lascar was overpowered and taken to Bedlam. A long way from home.

Repairs were made to the statue, which was made by Francis Bird in 1711, but by 1886 it was in poor state or repair. Rather than try to restore it, a copy was made by the artist Richard Belt – that’s the statue that is there today, though the original still exists in the grounds of a school in Hastings.

3 Winston Churchill in Parliament Square

Being in such a prominent position opposite the Houses of Parliament, Ivor Roberts-Jones statue of Winston Churchill was always going to put it at the mercy of protestors. However it ran into problems even before it was unveiled – with critics saying it looked too much like Italian Fascist leader Mussolini, leading to Roberts-Jones having to remodel the head.

In 2000 a four day series of anti capitalist protests took place across London over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend, organised by a very loose coalition of protest groups. One of the events was a day of Guerrilla Gardening in Parliament Square organised by Reclaim The Streets. Another group called Cyclists Have The Right to Move were holding a protest cycle, demanding dedicated cycle routes in the capital.

On May 1st 2000 people gathered in Parliament Square and as the day wore on disturbances started, causing shops to be looted and cars to be damaged, and Sir Winston’s statue to be vandalised, with red paint dripping out of his mouth and a strip of turf making a punk rock style Mohican. In the end 20 people were arrested and damage amounted to half a million pounds. It’s alleged that the head of the statue carries an electric charge to deter pigeons, but this doesn’t seem to have deterred the protestors. However this sort of protest has now been banned in Parliament Square

4 Margaret Thatcher Guildhall London

Margaret Thatcher by Neil Simmons at the Guildhall London. Photo courtesy the wub

With Parliament Square hosting the statues of a number of former Prime Ministers and there being no statue of a woman in the square, a statue of Britain’s first woman Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would be an obvious choice. However so much is the “love her or hate her” nature of Margaret Thatcher, it was thought that a statue of her would become a magnet for vandals. One of the neighbouring buildings to the proposed statue worried its staff might be at risk from projectiles being thrown at the statue.

As an illustration, when a statue of Margaret Thatcher was unveiled at Guildhall Art Gallery in May 2002 it was attacked and decapitated within two months. The marble sculpture by Neil Simmons was set upon by a man wielding a cricket bat, who then finished the job off with a metal pole. At his trial the first jury could not reach a verdict on whether he had lawful excuse to attack the statue, though at a second trial he was given a three month prison sentence. The statue was repaired and is back on display amid tighter security.

5 Mark Rothko Black on Maroon – Tate Modern

Mark Rothko vandalised

One of the benefits of opening Tate Modern as a dedicated new gallery for modern art in 2000 was creating a special space to display the Tate’s collection of monumental Mark Rothko paintings. If the Turbine Hall is the nave of Tate Modern’s Cathedral of art, intended to awe inspire, then the Mark Rothko room is a side chapel, more suited to quieter contemplative moments.

In October 2012 Vladimir Umanets decided to promote his new art movement – Yellowism by appropriating an existing artwork by signing his own name on it. He looked around the gallery and decided on the Rothko as the American artist had been one of Umanets heroes. “Yet each man kills the thing he loves” said Umanets, quoting Oscar Wilde after signing his name in permanent ink on the painting. He now regrets doing it, after receiving eighteen months in prison. The painting was fully restored and is back on display.

6 Richard I outside Houses of Parliament

Carlo Marochetti’s statue of Richard Coeur de Lion outside the House of Lords

Vandalism of a different kind took place in World War Two when the bombing of London during the Blitz caused huge damage and loss of life. One artwork to be affected was Carlo Marochetti’s statue of Richard I outside the House of Lords. The statue was somewhat controversial when it was made. A plaster version of the statue was put on display at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and though popular with the public, there was some criticism that a foreigner (Marochetti was a French citizen) was displaying his work at the exhibition. A similar row ensued when MPs voted for a permanent bronze version of the statue.

On 26th September 1940 a huge German bomb exploded next to the statue, blowing it off its pedestal, bending Richard’s sword and damaging the horses tail. Nonetheless Richard remained defiantly upright and was taken as a symbol of the strength of democracy against tyranny. Some MPs even argued the statue should remain unrepaired after the war. The statue was repaired in 19467 and again in 2009 but you can still see bomb damage on the plinth.

7 Banksy

Banksy artwork near Old Street station

As tour guides we often get requests from visitors to London asking to be taken on graffiti art tours of Banksy’s work. Its always a shame to tell them that, while there is plenty of street art in London to see, there are very few works by Banksy remaining. It’s perhaps an interesting example of art only becoming art once it is worth something.

Around 2000 Banksy was known more as a prankster than as an artist. This changed however once his work started to sell at auction to the likes of Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguelira. Suddenly his works on London streets became covered up to protect them, while others went missing, whole sections of wall being removed overnight. This didn’t stop Transport for London painting over Banksy’s tribute to the film Pulp Fiction outside Old Street Station in 2007. Despite the painting being worth hundreds of thousands of pounds it was painted over as TfL said they were taking a tough stance against graffiti and there were no exceptions.

8 Portrait of Henry James

Henry James by John Singer Sargent at the National Portrait Gallery

Mary Richardson was not the only suffragette to attack an artwork, and for a period in 1914 there were a number of attacks throughout the country. At the Royal Academy a Votes for Women poster had been stuck on the front of a new portrait of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. But even improved security at the Summer Exhibition in 1914 didn’t stop Mary Wood from attending with a meat cleaver up her sleeve.

Once inside she found John Singer Sargent’s new portrait of his friend, the novelist Henry James. Wood smashed the glass and struck the painting shouting “Votes for Women”. Chaos seems to have broken out then, with attendees at the exhibition attempting to lynch Mrs Wood, while another man tried to defend her. He then was attacked as a Suffragette apologist. When Mary Wood was finally arrested and put on trial she apologised for the damage but said none of this was necessary if women had been given the vote. She then went on to complain that artworks created by women were less valued than those made by men.

By attacking one of the senior artists paintings at the conservative Royal Academy she was certainly attacking the art establishment. John Singer Sargent repaired the painting himself and it is on display at the National Portrait Gallery.

9 Bust of Ramesses II in the British Museum

Bust of Ramesses II in the British Museum

Not so much vandalised as an object intentionally damaged – look at the round hole in the top left of this bust of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. This was put there as part of the attempt to bring the colossal sculpture back to Europe, probably by men from Napoleon’s army who were attempting to lever it upward and created the hole as part of the process. When the French were driven from Egypt, the British made an attempt hiring Giovani Belzoni, a former circus strongman, to bring the statue back to London. Belzoni had invented a new type of hydraulic lifting gear. It took three years to get it back to Britain, and didn’t get to the British Museum until 1834 requiring a troop of Royal Engineers to get it into the galleries.

Its a remarkable statue – try standing beneath it and look at how the statue’s eyes look down on you as if you are a worthless specimen. It dates back to 1270BC but what’s equally historic is this statue inspired Percy Shelley to write the poem Ozymandias which includes the famous lines

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

It’s remarkable also because drilling a big hole into a historic object to make it easy to move is definitely frowned upon!

10 Statue of Hadrian

Emperor Hadrian British Museum

Hadrian visits the Roman city of Londinium around 110AD, possibly to oversee the reconstruction of the city after a devastating fire. Its thought that this head, found in the Thames, and a hand found nearby are from a huge statue of Hadrian built to commemorate this visit. But why are the head and the hand such neat survivors of the statue? What happened to the rest of it and why don’t we find any other parts. Had the head and hand been neatly cut off the statue, and if so why? It certainly looks a very neat decapitation rather than a chance survival. Did a following Emperor’s supporters cut off the head of Hadrian as an act of 2nd century artistic vandalism?

Find out more on one of our Museum and gallery tours. You can get a private tour of one of London’s Museums or Art Galleries for up to 6 people for £60 or check our schedule for our regular themed museum tours.

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