Why do people attack works of art? We ask an expert

This year, a man dressed as a frail, elderly woman jumped out of a wheelchair and smeared cake on the Mona Lisa, protesting the attention given to art in the face of the climate degradation. The painting was intact, defended by glass installed in 1956 when someone threw a rock at it. This month, climate protesters also covered - and stuck to the frame - John Constable's The Hay Wain in London. Why do people attack art? I asked Noah Charney, an art historian who specializes in artistic crime.

Is it true that the Mona Lisa is attacked more than other works of art? 'art ? It's a prime target: it's the most famous work of art in history. And it has become an essential icon for France.

But the Mona Lisa is not French! Yet it is the jewel of the Louvre, which is. It is important to distinguish between vandalism and iconoclasm, that is, when the target is chosen because of what it represents. Some people might have a program. Or they could be mentally ill.

Or both. The man who coated the cake was placed in psychiatric care. Here's another example: In 1914, Mary Richardson slashed Velázquez's nude, The Rokeby Venus, in the National Gallery in London with a knife. She wanted to protest the treatment of suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst in prison. She chose it because it seemed to objectify women.

What happened to the array? The restorers did a wonderful job. But you can still see the marks.

I would never approve of disfiguring art, but it's pretty cool. The layers of history on this canvas - that's almost part of it. , why do some works trigger this response? My research says that these are usually the ones who are sexualized. There are a lot of sexualized Madonnas. And sometimes it's about how art manifests with mental illness. In 1991, a man attacked Michelangelo's David with a hammer. He asked for a painting by Veronese who had told him to do it. He attacked a Lippi with a knife and a Pollock with a marker.

It's interesting that the Pollock is the only abstract piece you mentioned. Usually, abstract works are not seen as objectionable. With the Pollock, the mugger said he was looking for a Manzoni artwork, but when he couldn't find it, he went with the next ugly one. Some people attack art on the pretext that it is a performance. A guy would be interested in famous works. Another sprayed "Kill Lies All" on a Picasso.

And all these works are OK? They are. Attackers play to hit, not to kill. In 2009, a Russian woman bought a cup of tea in the Louvre and threw it at the Mona Lisa because the French government had not given her citizenship.

N Isn't it Bizarre that artists symbolize the establishment when so many artists are, by nature, fringe and anti-establishment? Before the mid-19th century, artists were part of the establishment because they were mandated by the establishment, almost exclusively.

Hmm, I wonder who from our generation will be vandalized. Maybe Banksy? I bet he would like that. Four years ago, Banksy faked a piece to shred as soon as it sold at auction. He was an iconoclast destroying his own work, thereby increasing its value.