Intruders broke into the Musée d’Orsay early Sunday and one of them damaged a work by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, the latest in a series of acts of vandalism and thefts at cultural sites in France reports the New York Times.
Christine Albanel, the minister of culture, said the intruders left a tear close to four inches long in the painting “The Argenteuil Bridge,” from 1874.
The break-in was “an attack against our memory and our heritage,” Ms. Albanel told French radio France Info. She said the intruders, believed to be four men and a woman, appeared drunk and “left various bits of filth” before “one of them stuck a fist into the magnificent masterpiece by Monet.”
The alarms sounded and museum personnel arrived quickly, but the intruders were able to flee, Ms. Albanel said. The painting can be restored, she said.
No arrests had been made by late Sunday evening, according to news reports.
The break-in at the Orsay, which houses a major collection of Impressionist art, happened during a yearly all-night festival of arts and music, the White Night, when thousands of people pour into the streets.
Spirits were running particularly high late Saturday in Paris after France advanced to the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup in a closely fought victory over New Zealand.
The break-in is an embarrassment for the museum and also points up the vulnerability of some of the main institutions and monuments in France, where there have been a spate of attacks.
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