The London Man Who Allegedly Attacked a $26 Million Picasso at Tate Modern Says He Will Fight the Charge

A prized Pablo Picasso portrait
was attacked over the weekend at the Tate Modern in
London.

According to the
museum, Bust of a
Woman (1944) was
defaced by a visitor Saturday, December 28. The painting, which is
valued at £20 million ($26 million), according to the BBC, was immediately taken off
view. Initial reports said that it had suffered a rip.

“An incident occurred at Tate Modern on 28 December when a
member of the public attempted to damage a painting,” the Tate said
in a statement to the press following the attack. “The person was
swiftly apprehended and has been charged. Police are investigating.
The work of art is with our conservation team for expert
assessment. Tate Modern remains open.”

The alleged attacker was Shakeel
Ryan Massey, a 20-year-old northwest London resident who was
apprehended shortly the supposed attack took place. Charged with
criminal damage, Massey appeared before a court on Monday where he
indicated that he would fight the charge. 

The suspect, denied bail, will
remain in custody until his pre-trial hearing, set for January
30. 

A representative from the museum
declined to share more information on the incident, citing the fact
that the event is still under investigation by London
police. 

Painted in Paris in the spring
of 1944, during the final months of Nazi occupation,
Bust of a Woman depicts Picasso’s famed muse—and fellow
artist—Dora Maar. It belongs to a private collection and has been
on long-term loan to the museum since 2011.

The last time such a
high-profile vandalization took place at the Tate was in 2012, when
Polish artist Vladimir Umanets defaced a 1958 Mark Rothko
painting, Black on
Maroon. Umanets,
who claimed the act was an “artistic statement” on behalf of his
own self-created Yellowism movement, was sentenced to two years in
prison.

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Picasso at Tate Modern Says He Will Fight the Charge appeared
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