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tags:artvandal
rel: Rare Book with Crayon on it, Vandalism
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann (20 September 1937 – 19 January 2009) was a German serial vandal who primarily targeted artworks at public exhibitions. Between 1977 and 2006, he damaged over 50 paintings worth more than 270 million Deutsche Marks (about 138 million euro) by such artists as Rubens, Rembrandt and Dürer.
On 11 March 1977, his wife fell from a window while cleaning and died from injuries soon after. According to Bohlmann, the death of his wife turned him to vandalism. Previously, he often visited museums with his wife and saw the importance of art in society. He then started to buy sulfuric acid at pharmacies and spray it on paintings.
In his attacks, Bohlmann was primarily targeting the faces of the personages, trying to inflict maximum damage. Bohlmann’s activity was not restricted to paintings and museums; he ignited an altar in Lübeck and sprayed hundreds of tombstones with swastikas at night in Hamburg. The resultant outrage in the press encouraged him. As he felt he was becoming a celebrity, he abandoned the antidepressant drugs he had been taking.
In Ochsenzoll he attended art therapy and for nine years painted pictures, almost every day, with a total number of about 1,500.