Artist Accused of Vandalizing Urinal
Jan 06 8:50 AM US/Eastern
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PARIS
A 76-year-old performance artist was arrested after attacking Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" - a porcelain urinal - with a hammer, police said.
Duchamp's 1917 piece - an ordinary white, porcelain urinal that's been called one of the most influential works of modern art - was slightly chipped in the attack at the Pompidou Center in Paris, the museum said Thursday. It was removed from the exhibit for repair.
The suspect, a Provence resident whose identity was not released, already vandalized the work in 1993 - urinating into the piece when it was on display in Nimes, in southern France, police said.
During questioning, the man claimed his hammer attack on Wednesday was a work of performance art that might have pleased Dada artists. The early 20th-century avant-garde movement was the focus of the exhibit that ends Monday, police said.
A 2004 poll of 500 arts figures ranked "Fountain" as the most influential work of modern art - ahead of Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," Andy Warhol's screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and "Guernica," Picasso's depiction of war's devastation.
"Fountain" is estimated at $3.6 million.
