Hirst's shark decayed in its tank. Van Gogh's sunflowers turned brown. A vandal scrawled on a Rothko. Here's how masterpieces are fixed – if artists allow it
IT TOOK just seconds for self-styled art anarchist Wlodzimierz Umaniec to calmly step up to the giant Mark Rothko canvas hanging in London's Tate Modern gallery and graffiti his signature and a slogan across one corner in permanent ink.
The damage caused to Rothko's 1958 masterpiece Black On Maroon was considerable. Glazed areas made with egg and dammar resin had been destroyed, while in unglazed parts the ink had seeped to the back of the canvas through complex layers of oils, pigments, colourants and glues.
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