Art lover gets carried away
Published on: 16-Nov-2007
An art lover let her emotions get carried away when she spontaneously kissed a painting.Cambodian-born Rindy Sam said she planted the smacker on the $2 million picture because she was "overcome with passion" after seeing the picture in a gallery, according to the Reuters news agency.
Unfortunately, she left a red lipstick mark on the work by US artist Cy Twombly.
The owner of the painting, Yvon Lambert was singularly unimpressed with the outpouring of emotion.
She promptly demanded $2 million in damages and 33,400 euros for restoration.
A court in the French city of Avignon ordered Ms Sam to pay 1,000 euros in damages to the owner, 500 euros to the gallery owner and a token one euro to the artist.
A seemingly unrepentant Ms Sam, 30, said that she thought her lipstick had actually improved the pure white canvas painting.
It remains to be seen whether she has started a trend, which would do wonders for the lipstick industry but might not be viewed quite so kindly by art investors.
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