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Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903), Two Tahitian Women, 1899, oil on canvas, from the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of William Church Osborn, 1949.

Court documents reveal why woman attacked Gauguin artwork

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903), Two Tahitian Women, 1899, oil on canvas, from the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of William Church Osborn, 1949.
Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903), Two Tahitian Women, 1899, oil on canvas, from the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of William Church Osborn, 1949.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A woman who attacked a painting by French Impressionist Paul Gauguin at the National Gallery in Washington wanted to destroy the tableau because, she said, it showed nudity and homosexuality. The information appears in court documents seen on Tuesday.

“I feel that Gauguin is evil. He has nudity and is bad for the children. He has two women in the painting and it’s very homosexual,” the woman was quoted as telling security officers who detained her after she tried to rip Gauguin’s Two Tahitian Women from the gallery wall and beat it with her fist.

The suspect, who was identified as Susan Burns in the detaining officer’s statement, said she thought the painting should be destroyed.

“I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned,” National Gallery police officer Dexter Moten quoted Burns as saying in a sworn statement filed with the Washington D.C. superior court.

Appearing somewhat unstable, Burns also said: “I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you.”

Burns, whose age was not given in the court documents, allegedly entered the National Gallery on Friday where the Gauguin was on exhibit, walked over to the painting and tried to rip it off the wall. She succeeded in getting some of the fixtures holding the painting to the wall to work loose and fall to the ground, and then began to pummel the middle of the painting with her fist before she was restrained by museum security guards.

Because the painting was protected by a transparent acrylic shield, it is believed to have sustained no damage, although laboratory tests were due to be carried out to ensure that was indeed the case.

The entire attack was caught on the museum’s security cameras.

Burns faces charges of destruction of property worth less than $200 for the fixtures that fell to the floor and damage to the wall, and attempted theft of the painting, which the court documents say is worth an estimated $80 million.

Two Tahitian Women has been on display at the National Gallery since February, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903), Two Tahitian Women, 1899, oil on canvas, from the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of William Church Osborn, 1949.
Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903), Two Tahitian Women, 1899, oil on canvas, from the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of William Church Osborn, 1949.