Damaged or vandalised works of art may not radiate with the same intense beauty that they once did, but their impact is not always diminished. Many critics believe that impairments not only change the function of an artwork, but also create a new image in its own right. All of which begs the question: could an act of vandalism also be an act of creation?
Perhaps, but can a $1 million vase by the famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei retain any of its meaning or worth after being smashed to pieces by a Florida artist, Maximo Caminero, at Miami’s Pérez Art Museum in an apparent act of protest?
More than a century ago, what is now the most famous painting in the world – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa – but what was then a relatively undiscovered artwork, was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian thief. When the Louvre reopened in Paris shortly after the theft, crowds thronged the museum’s halls to view nothing at all except the picture hooks and the empty space where the picture had once hung.
The same could well be true of the $1m vase. By smashing it to pieces, Caminero may have created a more valuable, more interesting piece of conceptual art.
