Some of my works were vandalized so I wanted to find out exactly what kind of people are capable of vandalizing and destroying art. Michelangelo’s Pietà was vandalized with a hammer. This timeless, magnificent work of art received 12 blows. The culprit was an unemployed geologist with mental issues. The Mona Lisa by Da Vinci was attacked 4 times (twice in the same year) at home and abroad. In 1956 it was doused in acid while on temporary loan to a museum in Southern France; a

This recent cover of the the New Yorker clearly depicts people at an art opening too involved in talking to each other about the shocking state of our country to pay any attention to the artist and art displayed on the walls. Many people think of art as superfluous anyway, a luxury to be enjoyed by the well to do, a flourish but not relevant to our lives. And yet art matters. Art matters deeply. I want to talk today about what happened to art, artists and art collectors durin