2 women charged with spraying MeToo graffiti on nude painting at Paris museum
- They defaced ‘The Origin of the World’, a nude painted by French artist Gustave Courbet, and four other works at the Pompidou-Metz museum
- Creator Deborah de Robertis said she organised the operation as part of a performance titled: ‘You Don’t Separate the Woman from the Artist’
A top French museum has filed a police complaint after two women spray-painted a famous 19th-century painting by Gustave Courbet which it had loaned to another gallery, officials said on Friday.
The women have been charged with spraying the words “MeToo” on “The Origin of the World”, a nude painted by French artist Courbet, and four other works.
The 1866 painting was on loan from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris to the Pompidou-Metz in the northeastern city of Metz. It was protected by a glass pane on which the words were scrawled.
“Stained with red paint, the work was taken down for examination by a qualified restorer. The frame has received numerous splashes of paint that could have lasting marks even after restoration,” the Musee d’Orsay said in a statement, adding that it had “filed a complaint”.
The museum said the painting would not return to the Metz exhibition that closes in May.
Metz prosecutor Yves Badorc said five works had been sprayed with the words “MeToo” and one was stolen.
French-Luxembourg performance artist Deborah de Robertis said she organised the operation carried out by two other people, as part of a performance titled: “You Don’t Separate the Woman from the Artist”.