[MSN] Woman tried for kissing Twombly painting

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

  Woman tried for kissing Twombly painting

October 9, 2007
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AVIGNON, France -- A woman who planted a lipstick-laden kiss on an 
all-white painting by the American artist Cy Twombly went on trial 
Tuesday, telling the court she had committed an "act of love" - not a crime.

Rindy Sam, a 30-year-old French artist, faced charges of "voluntarily 
damaging a work of art." Restorers have tried to remove the lipstick 
smudge from the bone-white canvas using nearly 30 products - to no avail.

"I didn't think. When I kissed it, I thought the artist would have 
understood," Sam told the court in the southern French city of Avignon, 
describing it as "an act of love."

Prosecutors, however, want Sam to pay a $6,400 fine and take a class on 
good citizenship.

Sam was taken into custody after she kissed the painting on July 19. It 
was part of a traveling exhibition on display at the Museum of 
Contemporary Art in Avignon.

The painting, which is worth an estimated $2,830,000, is owned by 
collector Yvon Lambert. He was asking for $2,878,000 in damages, which 
included the value of the painting and the $47,000 restoration cost.

Twombly is known for his abstract paintings combining painting and 
drawing techniques, repetitive lines and the use of graffiti, letters 
and words.

Born in Lexington, Va., in 1928, Twombly has lived in Italy for nearly a 
half-century. He won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice 
Biennale in 2001.

Tuesday's trial comes just days after another painting - French 
Impressionist painter Claude Monet's "Le Pont d'Argenteuil" - was 
vandalized. Intruders, apparently drunk, broke into Paris' Orsay Museum 
early Sunday and punched a hole in the renowned work.

French Culture Minister Christine Albanel, reacting to Sunday's 
incident, pledged to seek improved security in museums and stronger 
sanctions against those who desecrate art.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com