Shelley Lambert

Finally, here are some pics from ‘The Random Sample’ art exhibit… And yes, I intentionally called it “the” random sample, instead of “a” random sample.

Apparently, this is an actual phenomenon. Have you ever wanted to destroy something beautiful?

If you thought art galleries were quiet havens of contemplation, think again. Looking at great works of art can inspire a strong, sometimes irresistible urge to destroy, Italian researchers have found.

Dubbed the “David syndrome,” after the statue of the young Hebrew king by Michelangelo, the condition can provoke an overwhelming desire to damage the art being viewed, the psychoanalyst who identified the malady told Reuters.

The David syndrome has links to the somewhat better known Stendhal syndrome, a term Magherini coined more than 20 years ago, which causes viewers of art to be physically overcome by their reaction to art, sometimes leading to hospitalization.

Well, I guess art crime pays.

The decision to set up an FBI Art Crimes Team in November 2004 was in part an acknowledgement of the obvious - that art crime is now big business.

By one estimation, transactions of $1bn to $2bn take place annually.

FBI’s Top Ten Art Crimes

• From 7,000 to 10,000 looted and stolen Iraqi artefacts, 2003
• 12 paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1990
• Two Renoirs and one Rembrandt from Sweden’s National Museum, 2000 (two recovered)
• Munch’s The Scream and The Madonna from the Munch Museum in Oslo, 2004
• Benevenuto Cellini Salt Cellar from Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2003
• Caravaggio’s Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco from Palermo, 1969
• Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius violin from a New York apartment, 1995
• Two Van Gogh paintings from Amsterdam’s Vincent Van Gogh Museum, 2002
• Cezanne’s View of Auvers-sur-Oise from Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, 1999
• Leonardo’s Madonna with the Yarnwinder from Scotland’s Drumlanrig Castle, 2003