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Pascal Rossignol / Reutersfile
A woman looks at Eugene Delacroix 's painting, "Liberty Leading the People at the Louvre museum in Lens, northern France, in this Dec. 3 file picture.
PARIS -- A woman defaced Eugene Delacroix's painting "Liberty Leading the People" with a black marker as it hung in an outpost of the Louvre gallery in northern France.
Police arrested a 28-year-old woman on Thursday for writing "AE911" across the bottom of a painting so closely identified with the French Republic that its image once graced the 100-franc note and it has been reproduced on postage stamps.
"AE911Truth" is the name of a website called "Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth" whose backers say they are seeking to establish the truth of the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide airliner attacks on New York's Twin Towers.
Painted in 1830, Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" depicts a bare-breasted woman brandishing a tricolor flag and leading her people over the bodies of the fallen.
Reuters
Xavier Dectot, director of the Louvre-Lens Museum, speaks to the media after Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People," was damaged.
It was painted after the 1830 July Revolution as a symbol of reconciliation following the overthrow of Bourbon King Charles X and the ascent to the throne of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans.
The painting was later adopted as a revolutionary emblem in the 1848 uprising which overthrew the Orleans monarchy.
It later disappeared from public view but resurfaced in the Louvre after the advent of the Third Republic in 1871 and sealed its place in the French national consciousness.
"It had really become an icon, a sort of symbol of the Republic which has remained famous throughout the ages," said Vincent Pomarede, head of the Louvre's painting department.
"We have a very passionate relationship with all our paintings and when something like this happens it's really hard to handle," he said.
The work was on loan from the main Louvre in Paris to the new Louvre-Lens gallery in northern France inaugurated last December by President Francois Hollande when it was defaced.
However, the Louvre confirmed Friday it had managed to save the painting as the black marker had not penetrated the upper layer of varnish and has been successfully removed.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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... and here I thought the woman might have been making a statement about the gross injustice and loss of liberty worldwide, under the guise of "security" and such... silly me.
That's exactly what she was doing. I agree with her on one respect, the truth about 9/11 was covered up by the Bush administration, building 7 was a planned demolition for certain and buildings one and two had significant help coming down. But I do not agree with defacing a work of art to make that statement. There are those who will never believe the truth about what happened because they overdosed on freedom fries and patriot toast that was feed to them daily by the media, namely Fox Noise, and there are those who knew it was an inside job within minutes of it happening, namely ME!!
So, you are saying that the 9/11 attack was done by the government? Our government? That is about as silly a belief as the "fake" lunar landings.
Bluegrassman, don't get him started about the lunar landings!
don't get the fuc king TRUTHERS started - they are as bad as that blizzard hitting the east coast (very cold and brainless) maybe this idiocy will take whatever wind the idiots have in their sails OUT
As someone posted in a previous thread, I can't wait until the asteroid hits earth. Hopefully the human race can start over again with new improved DNA and reassembled brains.
they really need to add the option to flag for crazy...
Why in the world do people believe that something as horrible as this tragedy was done on purpose by our government to our people in order to accomplish absolutely nothing?
Heath, it accomplishes plenty if done correctly. It puts the citizens in frantic mode, in which we look to the gov't to fix things, it's easier to manipulate scared, frightened populous. Easier to remove the checks and balances and create bigger gov't and new restricting laws. It gives us an excuse for us to go to war, which means that very, very few people get very, very rich off of said war(s). Don't be so naive to believe that gov't wouldn't do such things to their own country in order to enrich a very select few.
Please step away from the peanut butter annon - it appears you have had enough to muddle your brain.
for @!$%#'s sake... truthers are imbiciles.
Thanks for reminding me to buy more stock in Reynolds!
Oh, and get help.
Annon, believe me when I tell you that the government is not able to come up with such a convoluted scheme as you suggest. The government is bigger because it has to oversee more than it ever has in history. Nobody has benefited from the wars in any way, shape or form. They have added trillions to our debt, our soldiers are maimed or dead, and terrorism is still a huge threat. Stop being so naive yourself. The truth of the matter is much simpler than you can understand. Sometimes a bad guy really is just a bad guy.
Why don't the people that think our government is killing us become politicians so they can stop it or at least prove it?
Amazing how you nuts go off topic....people today only think of themselves....nothing else matters to them...not a priceless painting...nothing but me me me
After this disgraceful act, no "truthers" need to come here and spout their nonsense. We have heard all of their logical fallacies before in their breathless "Gish Gallop" delivery. They have no shame at all, and this behavior illustrates that well.
How sad to take out one's mental problems on an historical work of art. A totally unnecessary act! Fortunately the varnish blocked the ink.
As for all the conspiracy theories, whenever I'm asked to explain my actions in three words or less, I just ask, "Alien abduction, right?" Problem solved all the way around.
Seriously folks, get a life. I've seen some real conspiracies come to light, but the ones listed here are just too much--really, really farfetched.
Remind me to buy more stock in the aluminum foil industry, I think I can make a killing making hats.
I have a neighbor that believes this and she also thinks the airliners are poisoning us with the contrails they leave behind. She also believes you need a AK-47 to protect your home.
See Max, she's only half right. I prefer a .44 with a quick reload set up, but that's just me. Double action is nice, too. The contrail poisoning is just too high to do anything to us. LOL
Another f-ing nutjob.
You beat me to it!
Defacing a great piece of artwork. Yeah, that'll get people to take your nutty conspiracy theories more seriously.
@bow2me: And the guy who defaced the Picasso was punished with his artwork being put on exhibit by a quack art dealer. His point was not to celebrate anything. His point was to get recognition and make a name for himself. Lock him up! He's no artist. He's a criminal.
As long as she didn't paint over those breasts ...
The artist had already done so - with the low collar Liberty is wearing so that the perverts can hold their 'horses'.
9-11 conspiracy freaks want to blame the attack on anyone except Islamic terrorists: Bush, CIA, Israel, etc. They seem to feel so "in the know" when spouting their nonsense that it takes on a narcotic effect for these poor lost souls.
Indeed bow and pro, and we all imagined the towers falling down. They really are still there you know, just the government won't let us close enough to see them. And Barack Obama, who is really Norwegian, was on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas, but that was before he was put in charge of faking the moon landings. Damn this tinfoil is uncomfortable.
I was asked about who I thought was responsible for 9-11 this morning by a female devotee of Eric Paul Dollard. She angrily called me an ignorant young'un (at 47) and berated me for not taking his hollow, dying sun hypothesis (I hesitate to even call it that) seriously. Apparently this Dollard is big among Tesla fans. I remember something about him endorsing the book The Jupiter Effect (1980), which was a load of malarkey.
That converation went about as well as the one with the "chemtrails" guy who followed us around a tourist site in Montana.
dammit people - your problem is that you are wearing hats made from that inferior aluminium material foil. just because real TIN is scarce doesn't mean that you can AVOID the preferred metal foil. ALUMINIUM cannot block the radio signals from the MOTHER SHIP parked on the dark side of the moon. Now that I've revealed the secret they will be trying to kill me... what's that? A knock at my door? but it's so LATE....BANG! BANG!! BANG!!!
The whole article I was freaking out thinking that this masterpiece was forever ruined or that at the very least its future was uncertain, and then the writer, in the very last line, sneaks in the line saying that the Louvre has already fixed it.
Well done Vicky Buffery, well done indeed.
It's really hard to keep a secret in America, let alone a cover up so large, it involves other countries under the guise that America killed its own people.
In fact, when someone farts to loud in the white house, we have to hear about it. FOX would love to expose anyone involved with anything, then blame it on DEMS. Vise versa....
Those conspiracy nuts, are really really stupid people. Most of them, don't have good jobs, are strange and have troubles integrating with society.
Hey!...wait a minute! I don't have a good job, I'm strange and enjoy not integrating with society....and I still don't believe our government had anything to do with 9/11....maybe I'm the exception?
Saying that those who believe conspiracy theories do not have jobs is not the same as saying that those who have jobs tend to believe in conspiracy theories. The group without jobs is the larger group, the 9-11 Liars a smaller group within it.
Remember your logic: just because those who have beards tend to be men does not mean that all men have beards.
The painting by Eugene Delacroix has been restored- it did not suffer damage- the indelible black ink was only on the surface and no damage to actual colors of Liberte (1830)- same painting was also on 100 franc notes for two decades. Louvre-Lens Museum is located in northern France Pas-de-Calais opening Dec.4,2012. The 28 yr old woman is imbalanced -she will face a judge and a psychiatrist in court. AE911 is being promoted by conspiracy theorists. Stay tuned www.leparisien.fr/
And why wasn't it in a lucite or glass casing??? Such a important historical work???
If you believe the American politicians, then you are a jackass.
Saw the plane. Didn't need to wait for the press briefing.
I heard that the guard pulled his French Army knife on the perp but she got away anyway.
I guess the bare breasted woman, the Abe Lincoln character in the stovepipe hat and the little waif from Les Miserable is the French idea of some tough guys coming to the rescue. No wonder they poop'l'pants every time the Germans stroll through the Ardenne.
Man, did she screw the wrong painter.
Figures.
The craziness of the truther crowd goes nicely with the barbarism it takes to deface a work of art.
Also, it matches the standards of their allies, the islamists who can not stand any painting that includes female nudity.
Not to mention the christo-fascists who don't like nudity, a la John Ashcroft.
But those xtian extremists are totally different than the islamic extremists, right? /sarc
This is outrageous. The content of the painting transcends thousands of years of historical culture that originates in the classical Greek society, and then reaches back into their age of heroes. At the same time, this painting was created in a period of history that was in and of itself historical in the world of art. Delacroix represented the imagination and fantasy, while his contemporary rival, Ingres, represented aristocratic, neo-classical idealism. By defacing this glorious masterpiece, the villian offends its historical context.
BTW, the Liberty figure is the ancient Roman version of Athena Nike, the classical Greek goddess for victory, and righteousness. Even the image of this masterpiece continues to invoke goosebumps.
A person so "possessed" [term used advisedly] clearly cannot comprehend the reality of 9/11 and what it ushered in.
If I were French, I'd put that painting in a protective glass casing....just a thought.
I am 60. I remember when I was a young writer and the older writers lamented my ignorance. So I find myself in the same position: "a bare-breasted woman" as you call it, is Lady Liberty, youngster. The same lady liberty depicted in the scales of justice, which also displayed her with one breast uncovered, until the religious right took us back to a time when the female body was seen as obscene. . . .
The woman who defaced this painting is a true patriot. The French are technically "terrorists" for not supporting the War on Terror. They had their chance to show their true colors with the invasion of Iraq, and those idiots sided with the Terrorists. Let them eat cake I say!
Oh dear, not another " if your not with us" nutter. Yeah the French love muslims that's why they just bombed the @!$%# out of them and retook Timbuktu. That's why North African immigrants in France can't get work - because the French just love muslims so much!
The French had their reasons - mostly internal - for not invading Iraq, despite the fact that they and everybody else knew the WMD story was BS.
Alons enfents de la patria
le jour de gloire est arrive...
Is there a reason why the painting was not behind a glass frame? Seems like the optimal was to both preserve it and keep it on display.
Or maybe take picture of it and let people look at the picture? Or lock it away and let people listen to a recording that describes it?
911 conspiracy nuts, birthers, one world government nutters, vaccine idiots, organic food believers, 2nd amendment radicals, .............are these all the same small group of people or has everyone gone nuts?
They are two sides of the same coin of crazy. Some are right wingers, some left, but they are all so far from normal that they will never find their way back to reason. But yeah, most of these people believe many conspiracies simultaneously. Very few people are gullible enough to believe just one of these stories, but these people seem to have a predilection for this stuff.
Some of the conspiracy-nuts are just that, nuts! They find it difficult to believe that an additional 170 tons of floor loading should be easily sustainable. That one military 7.62 mm FMJ bullet can't behave as it did in Dallas, so they invent theories to fit their squirrelly beliefs. I have always appreciated the moon landing astronaut who punched a "the moon landing was faked" adherent who got in his face. But fortunately, most of them are harmless as a street poster, You know, carrying a sign; "The word ends tomorrow!"
Ya know...you kind of had me until you had to lump organic food in there....
Everybody should visit the Louvre once in their life the art is wonderful.
If these works of art are so valuable, why are they not "untouchable"? Surely the Louvre can spring for some bullet-proof glass.
Maybe they need to learn from America? You know, A sort of... TSA? To rummage through the belongings and skivvies of all visitors! By golly that might solve the problem!
Hey Woody...I know a guy who intentionally puts his dirty underwear inside-out-hash-marks-and-all.......right on top. But then, he's like that.....
the reason the world was so much better before the internet? Because we did not have to read the opinion of every dumbass on the planet living in mom's basement...
Lock her up in a padded cell for the rest of her life. Not for what she did to the painting, but because she is a deranged 9/11 (non)truther.
Not surprising that a woman who was idiotic enough to deface a painting like that would also believe that 9-11 was a government conspiracy. Too bad we can't round all these people up and tattoo a scarlet letter I ("for idiot") on their foreheads. It would save the rest of us some time and might save world art as well.