Claude Monet might be under a cruel art world curse.
Before there was the "Punch a Monet" game, before Andrew Shannon was sentenced to 5 years in prison for punching a hole in a Monet, people have been destroying the French Impressionist painter's works. Just yesterday, ArtNet News pointed out a similar incident that took place in October 2007.
Four to five drunk vandals broke into the Musée d'Orsay in the early hours of the morning before the museum opened. The gang set off an alarm, prompting them to make a run for it but not before leaving a 4-inch tear in Monet's Le Pont d'Argenteuil (1874), pictured above. Although surveillance cameras caught what happened on tape, no image or video of this incident has leaked. We looked.
Now before you go declaring punching Monet paintings a whacky trend of the art world, the more logical explanation is that this is a mere coincidence, though we can understand the urge to touch a priceless work of art.
[via ArtNet News]