When Vandalism Is Art? (There’s A Tradition)

“The ‘comedy terrorist’ Aaron Barschak faces a possible jail sentence, after being convicted last week by Oxford magistrates of criminally damaging works in the Chapman brothers’ summer exhibition The Rape of Creativity. What makes the case unusual is that some of the artworks concerned, now part of the Chapmans’ Turner prize show, have themselves given rise to accusations of vandalism: they include an edition of 80 rare original impressions of Goya’s The Disasters of War, on which faces of clowns and puppies have been drawn.”