Vandals have broken into the Musée d’Orsay and punched a hole in Claude Monet's "Le Pont d'Argenteuil".
A surveillance camera caught a group of four to five apparently drunk people entering the Paris museum early yesterday morning.
An alarm sounded and the group fled, but not before putting a four-inch tear in the painting, Christine Albanel, the culture minister, said.
No arrests were immediately made in the latest in a series of acts of vandalism and thefts at cultural sites in France.
An alarm sounded and the group fled, but not before putting a four-inch tear in the painting, Christine Albanel, the culture minister, said.
No arrests were immediately made in the latest in a series of acts of vandalism and thefts at cultural sites in France.
After attempting to force open other doors, the intruders managed to get in through a back door, "even though it had big bolts," Ms Albanel said. The painting was hanging on the ground floor with other Impressionist masterpieces.
The painting has a horizontal tear that exposes threads of canvas. It was visibly punched in, perhaps with a fist. The minister said the painting can be restored, but she deplored the damage.
The painting has a horizontal tear that exposes threads of canvas. It was visibly punched in, perhaps with a fist. The minister said the painting can be restored, but she deplored the damage.
French police have made five arrests over an attack on a painting by Claude Monet in Paris, France's AFP news agency says, quoting judicial sources.
