Courbet’s painting, protected by glass, was sprayed with red paint. The police are on site, says the museum.
Table The origin of the world, by the painter Gustave Courbet, was tagged with red paint on Monday while it was on display at the Center Pompidou-Metz as part of an exhibition on the theme of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. The 1886 painting which represents the genitals of a naked woman in a bed is loaned to the Lorraine museum by the Musée d’Orsay.
The work is however “protected by glass”the museum’s communications department told AFP, indicating that the police were on site to carry out analyses.