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Vandals Punch Hole in Monet

Group broke into Paris museum during all-night culture festival

By Colleen Barry,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 8, 2007 2:35 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Four or five people broke into a Paris museum on Sunday and punched a hole in a Monet. The group broke open a back door to the Musee d'Orsay and fled when an alarm sounded, but not before tearing a four-inch hole in "Le Pont d'Argenteuil," a scene of a bridge and boats on the Seine painted in 1874. The vandals appeared to be drunk.

The incident, which occurred on Nuit Blanche, an annual Paris all-night arts festival, was caught on security video, but no arrests have been made. The French culture minister said the painting could be restored. She continued, "It's always a heartbreak when an art object that is our memory, our heritage, that we love and that we are proud of is victim of a purely criminal act."

Renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, La Pont d'Argenteuil, is photographed at the Orsay Museum in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007, after intruders entered the museum early Sunday and seriously damaged the painting. A surveillance camera caught a group entering the museum, housing a major collection of Impressionist artists...
Renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, "La Pont d'Argenteuil," is photographed at the Orsay Museum in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007, after intruders entered the museum early Sunday and seriously...   (Associated Press)
A 10-centimeter (nearly 4-inch) tear is seen in renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, Le Pont d'Argenteuil, at the Orsay Museum in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007, after intruders entered the museum early Sunday and seriously damaged the painting. A surveillance camera caught a group entering the museum, housing...
A 10-centimeter (nearly 4-inch) tear is seen in renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, "Le Pont d'Argenteuil," at the Orsay Museum in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007, after intruders entered...   (Associated Press)
A visitor walks past a large clock in the Musee d'Orsay, which was once a railroad station.
A visitor walks past a large clock in the Musee d'Orsay, which was once a railroad station.   (KRT Photos)
Exterior, Musee d'Orsay.
Exterior, Musee d'Orsay.   (Getty Images)
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art museum • France • art • vandalism • painting • Paris • vandals • damage • Monet

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