A man entered the National Gallery in London on Saturday afternoon, approached a painting by British master Thomas Gainsborough, and proceeded to attack it with a “sharp object.”
A Metropolitan Police Service spokesman tells NPR that a 63-year-old man named Keith Gregory, “of no fixed abode,” was charged with causing criminal damage to a National Gallery painting.
It’s not clear what motivated the attack on Gainsborough’s 1785 work Mr and Mrs William Hallett, more commonly known as The Morning Walk. The museum said in a statement that the suspect was quickly apprehended by museum staff and visitors, and then arrested by the police.
“The damage is limited to two long scratches which have penetrated the paint layers, but not the supporting canvas,” the museum said. “The painting was removed from display and examined by the Gallery’s conservators, who are now assessing next steps.”
The National Gallery did not specify what type of “sharp object” was used to attack the work of art, though one Reddit user said bystanders were speaking about a screwdriver.