Urinal assailant fined €214,000 for hammer damage
ABOVE: Pierre Pinoncelli, top right, was ordered to pay more than €200,000 for damages to Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain.
Pierre Pinoncelli, who we reported on earlier this month when he brought his (bang bang!) silver hammer down upon Marcel Duchamp’s famous Fountain, was ordered by a Paris judge yesterday to pay €214,000 as a fine for his attack, and to pay to have the piece repaired.
Pinoncelli maintains that his attack was a piece of performance art, and that he has made the iconic Duchamp “readymade” into a truly original work by damaging it. The judge, as judges are wont to do, disagreed. Pinoncelli’s hammering was an escalation of his aggression against the hapless urinal, which he urinated into during a 1993 exhibit. It will apparently cost €14,352 to have the piece restored.
LINK: BBC > Attack on urinal work brings fine
Though I agree that the artist has done a bit of performance art, I also think he deserves the stiff fine, which he should graciously accept as part of the performance. What a way to connect oneself to art history. Now Pinoncelli’s name will be forever connected to Duchamp’s.
I just hope this act doesn’t encourage others to peform damaging acts of performance art on other works.