Two girls charged in France over graffiti on famed ‘Origin of the World’ portray | EUROtoday
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Two girls have been charged in France on Tuesday over the spraying of the phrases “MeToo” on 5 artworks together with a well-known Nineteenth-century portray of a girl’s vulva, a prosecutor mentioned.
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The girls, born in 1986 and 1993, have been arrested on Monday afternoon after concentrating on “The Origin of the World”, a nude painted by French artist Gustave Courbet.
The 1866 paintings on show on the Centre Pompidou-Metz was protected by a “glass pane”, the museum within the northeastern metropolis of Metz mentioned.
French-Luxembourgish efficiency artist Deborah de Robertis advised AFP she had organised the spray portray in pink of the nude and one other portray, carried out by two different folks, as a part of a efficiency titled: “You Don’t Separate the Woman from the Artist”.
Metz prosecutor Yves Badorc mentioned 5 works had been sprayed with the phrases “MeToo” and one stolen.
The two girls have been charged with degrading and stealing cultural property, he mentioned.
In a video despatched to AFP by de Robertis, one girl tags Courbet’s well-known portray with pink paint after which a second sprays one other one. They then chant “MeToo” earlier than being dragged away by safety guards.
In an open letter, de Robertis denounced the behaviour of six males within the artwork world, describing them as “predators” and “censors”.
De Robertis mentioned that they had additionally seized an embroidery work by French artist Annette Messager as “reappropriation”.
The prosecutor mentioned a 3rd particular person — who was not arrested — may have been behind the theft of the 1991 work titled “I Think Therefore I Suck”.
De Robertis mentioned the work belonged to an artwork critic.
“I recognised it straight away, I wanted to throw up as it’s the one hanging over his marital bed. I remembered the numerous blow-jobs that he allowed himself to ask me as if it was his due,” when she was 26, she mentioned.
De Robertis already had work on show on the venue in Metz — {a photograph} of a 2014 efficiency on the Musee d’Orsay wherein she posed displaying her vulva beneath Courbet’s portray.
“The Origin of the World” is in Metz on mortgage from the Musee d’Orsay.
A French court docket in 2020 sentenced de Robertis to pay a 2,000-euro ($2,150) superb for showing bare in 2018 in entrance of a cave within the city of Lourdes in southwest France, a Catholic pilgrimage web site for individuals who consider the Virgin Mary appeared there.
A case in opposition to her was dropped in 2017 after she confirmed her vulva in entrance of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa on the Louvre museum within the French capital.
(AFP)
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240507-two-women-charged-in-france-over-graffiti-on-famed-origin-of-the-world-painting