Delacroix\'s \'Liberty Leading the People\' Is Defaced in France

Agence France-Presse A visitor passing Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading The People” at a branch of the Louvre museum in Lens, France.

The famous Delacroix painting “Liberty Leading the People” has been defaced by a vandal, BBC News reported, but the authorities say they have detained a woman accused of writing on the artwork and that any damage to it may be removed.

The painting, created by Delacroix in 1830 to commemorate that year’s July Revolution, and depicting a woman triumphantly hoisting the tricolor French flag, has been on display at a new branch of he Louvre Museum in Lens, in northern France. Just before the museum’s closing time on Thursday, BBC News said, a 28-year-old woman wrote graffiti at the bottom of the painting and was stopped by a security guard. A local prosecutor told Agence France-Presse that the woman, whose name was not given, seemed “unstable” and would be given a psychiatric examination. The gallery was closed to the public on Friday.

A restoration expert will be sent from the Louvre in Paris to examine the painting, and the museum said in a statement reported by the BBC that the graffiti may be “easily cleaned.”