Police: Woman Attacks Art At DC Museum Again

WASHINGTON -- A woman who attacked a painting at Washington's National Gallery of Art earlier this year has struck again, police say, this time lashing out against a Henri Matisse painting at the museum.

Susan Burns of Alexandria, Va., was arrested Aug. 5 after police say she walked over to Matisse's 1919 painting "The Plumed Hat," and slammed the painting repeatedly against a wall, damaging its frame but not the $2.5 million painting.

The 53-year-old Burns was arrested in April for attacking an $80 million Paul Gauguin painting called "Two Tahitian Women." As a condition of her release she promised she would stay away from all museums and art galleries in Washington.

In the latest incident she was charged with unlawful entry and brought to the city's mental health facility.

Comments

[jhonfire01]

07:11 AM on 08/18/2011

ya,our women always attract the painting ,thay visited the different art galleries.

[sparkybrown7877]

08:44 PM on 08/17/2011

all museums should have an order of protection against her.

[SangZe]

01:30 PM on 08/16/2011

Teabagger?

[ethiopia1a]

11:46 AM on 08/16/2011

Michelle Bachmann is at it again

[NextStopWonder]

11:46 AM on 08/16/2011

Sounds like paranoid schizophrenia. This woman needs intensive mental health treatment, and immediately.

[ethiopia1a]

11:47 AM on 08/16/2011

Hey Babe, 3rd times the Charm :-)
And she was allowed the second time, why? Oh, did some Shrink say she was cured?

[greenlass]

10:31 AM on 08/16/2011

It certainly does demonstrate the power art has.

Thank goodness she did no damage to the painting, but only the frame. I guess that's one good thing about those massive, often-monstrous constructions around so much art (have you ever noticed how they're so big, they cast a shadow over the top of a painting, obscuring it?)

[bracken]

09:58 AM on 08/16/2011

From the Westboro Baptist Church Committee on Filthy Art.

[ujustdewit]

09:17 AM on 08/16/2011

Art makes her angry..... VERY ANGRY!!! ;{

[Illuminarts]

12:14 PM on 08/17/2011

Art wouldn't like her when she's angry.

[cliffhammond]

01:16 AM on 08/16/2011

Will someone put this woman in a room with a Robert Mapplethorpe and lock the door?

[ugotabkidnme]

10:34 PM on 08/15/2011

Why is everyone on this thread automatically assuming that Susan Burns is mentally ill; and, therefore she is not responsible for her actions? She was brought to the city's mental institution for no other reason at this point for observation. IShe attempted to destroy an irreplaceable 2.5 million dollar painting and was charged with unlawful entry? She will continue returning to destroy masterpieces as long as they continue to charge her with violations. She'll pay the ticket and will return. What are they waiting for...until she succeeds at the destruction of a masterpiece? Who is crazier, law enforcement or Susan?

[grayplace]

07:58 PM on 08/15/2011

Hey, HP, tell us why she attacked the paintings. It would be a nice addition to the story to know her modivation.

[chachablix]

09:02 PM on 08/15/2011

mentally ill people hardly have motivation

[grayplace]

10:50 PM on 08/15/2011

They always have motivation. Whether that motivation is rational or not is another story.

[ugotabkidnme]

10:21 PM on 08/15/2011

She attacked the $80 million Paul Gauguin painting called "Two Tahitian Women" because the women in the painting are bare chested. If I remember correctly, she said she did it in the name of God.... either insane or a bagger or both.

[grayplace]

10:49 PM on 08/15/2011

Thanks.

[NancyY]

11:30 PM on 08/15/2011

A "bagger"? You are trying to bring your stinky partisan hate into this discussion? Okay, I thank you for doing so, because you have exposed yourself and your ridiculous agenda.

[ZZPOT]

07:42 PM on 08/15/2011

Probably a bagger. Neocons & baggers hate Art. Get a rope.

[eric14]

07:22 PM on 08/15/2011

There was a guy on BBC children's TV who did a program for years on Art. His name was Tony Hart. One day he had a heart attack and he was off-air. They replaced his program with one more up to date, with a zappy title that flowed naturally out of the subconsciousness of a younger generation despising the older as they become edgy and all that nonsense. Oh, what was it called, and why do I write here?

(Tony Hart, heart attack).

Because they called it ''Art Attack.'' Ah, the BBC so sentimental.

[RationalCaliGirl]

05:38 PM on 08/15/2011

Her response to the attack on the Gauguin piece, “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. I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned. I am from the American CIA and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you.”

[Asmodean1]

06:12 PM on 08/15/2011

U had me until I reached the CIA part. LOL

[RationalCaliGirl]

06:32 PM on 08/15/2011

I it find interesting that so many people claim the have CIA planted devices in their heads. WTH?

[catt624]

08:07 AM on 08/16/2011

Haha, she DID get me!

F/F for your microbio and Darwin fish.

[catt624]

08:03 AM on 08/16/2011

Wow, really? How am I not surprised? It definitely takes dogma to see our natural state as being dirty.

[sue1mar3]

05:36 PM on 08/15/2011

I think she got off too easy. What other object worth many millions of dollars could a person try to destroy without getting punished? Would she have gotten a slap on the wrist for ripping up the Declaration of Indepedence?

[Asmodean1]

06:15 PM on 08/15/2011

The Declaratio­n of Independence is actually in a secure case, that can if disturbed, drop it into a vault that will washstand a nuclear blast!

[sue1mar3]

08:39 PM on 08/15/2011

Yes, I am aware of that. It was just used as an illustrative example.

[douttfire]

06:28 PM on 08/15/2011

They already ripped up the Constitution...

[Asmodean1]

09:56 PM on 08/15/2011

Ummm... the Declaratio­­n of Independen­ce and the Constituti­on are two different things. One has nothing to do with the other.