Eight Instances of Cinematic Art Destruction

Batman (1989)—What’s worse, the defacement of art or the ghetto-blasted Prince music? Anyway, the Gotham Art Museum has some pretty impressive paintings. Joker and his henchmen destroy works by Degas, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, to name a few. The only work to survive is a grotesque Francis Bacon piece for which the Joker feels an affinity.

Bean (1997)—The British mime/clown/whatever sneezes on “Whistler’s Mother.” In trying to wipe it clean (with paint thinner), he destroys the face on the painting. Bean’s first solution is to draw a hysterical cartoon face in marker on the painting. Later, he replaces it with a print of the original coated in a layer of raw eggs. Nobody knows the difference.

Children of Men (2006)—Michelangelo’s “David” is seen in London with a shattered left leg.

I Am Legend (2007)—Will Smith, the last man in Manhattan, has several of the city’s masterpieces, including “The Starry Night” and “The Sleeping Gypsy,” hanging on his walls. Late in the film, the infected creatures attack the apartment in a pitched battle of gunfire and explosives. The paintings are surely destroyed.

Manhunter/Red Dragon (1986/2002)—Francis Dolarhyde talks his way into the Brooklyn Museum’s archives, where he rips out and eats William Blake’s watercolor “The Red Dragon.”

National Treasure (2004)—Nicolas Cage and friends steal the Declaration of Independence, a document so fragile that it is permanently sealed in argon. (Is this art or just a priceless artifact?)

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)—Pierce Brosnan cuts a Monet painting out of its frame and folds it into a briefcase.

Titanic (1997)—Paintings by Picasso, Monet, and Degas are seen floating in the sinking ship. I think the paintings might be more insulted by DiCaprio’s earlier “Look at his use of color” line.


Bonus, because it doesn’t involve damage and it may not even occur in the movie, which I haven't seen: The Da Vinci Code (2006)—The guy who dies at the beginning rips a priceless painting off the wall, surmising that it’s worth more than his life and no rational person would shoot through it.