Painting by Jan Victors damaged at the Guggenheim Bilbao

On October 23, a 25-year-old man damaged with a knife a painting by Dutch artist Jan Victors (1619-1676) entitled Boaz Assumes the Legacy of Elimelech, currently being exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It is a monumental oil painting-180 x 201.7 cm¿that depicts a legal act: the transferring of inheritance through the ancient Israeli custom of handling over a shoe to the inheritor. According to the Guggenheim, the damage consists of six scratches to the painted surface and one three-centimeter long incision. The damaged sections where immediately restored by museum experts and after the initial evaluation¿accompanied by the restoration and conservation process¿the damage to the painting is no longer visible. The painting attacked is part of a temporal exhibition entitled The Golden Age of Dutch and Flemish Painting. It includes 130 master works from the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (Germany) that were created between the end of the Sixteenth Century and the beginning of the Seventeenth Century. The works will remain in Bilbao until January 23. The attack was reportedly carried out by a young man that appeared to be mentally imbalanced. The Museum denounced the attack to the Ertzaintza (Bilbao Police) and the assailant was identified as an art student at the Faculty of Fine Arts.