College Student Charged With Vandalism Of Picasso Painting

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Photo By AFP/Getty Images

Photo By AFP/Getty Images

It looks as if a college student from the University of Houston decided to add on to a masterpiece that Pablo Picasso drew in 1926. Unfortunately, local authorities believe that this student should have kept his artistic views off the painting.

Uriel Landeros, a 22 year old art student, was caught on a cell phone video by an art patron vandalizing the painting at a local Houston art museum. He supposedly spray painted a bull and the word “Conquista”, which means conquest in Spanish, in gold onto Picasso’s “Woman in a Red Armchair”. The video made it onto YouTube and was tracked down by local Crime Stoppers.

Landeros currently has a warrant out for his arrest and has been charged with criminal mischief and felony graffiti, which are both third-degree felonies.

Luckily, a museum representative said that this famous painting is currently being fixed in their conservation lab and “prognosis is excellent.” They also said that this painting will be able to hang in the museum very soon.

Menil Collection Director Josef Helfenstein called it an “unfortunate incident.” “It threatened the public’s ability to enjoy a wonderful painting and violated the bonds of trust that enable museums to share great works with their visitors,” Helfenstein said.

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