A man who damaged a Picasso painting worth £ 20 million will spend a year and a half in prison

The restoration of a piece from a private collection, which was in the Tate Modern under a long-term lease agreement, will take more than a year and can cost up to £ 350,000. A visitor to the Tate Modern, who deliberately damaged painting by Pablo Picasso, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison.

Shaquille Ryan Massey pleaded guilty to deliberately damaging the painting “Bust of a Woman” (1944), which depicts the artist’s beloved and muse Dora Maar. This portrait of the photographer Dora Maar was painted on 5 May 1944. Her reconfigured features may reflect the complex atmosphere of the final weeks of the Nazi Occupation of Paris.

From the court materials, it follows that the painting, which is estimated at £ 20 million, suffered approximately £ 350,000 in damage.

According to the Evening Standard newspaper, an architecture student from Spain looked at the painting for about three minutes before ripping it off the wall and telling the guards that it was an “art performance.”

In court, Attorney Ben Edwards reports that Massey threw his jacket on the floor and rushed to the painting, hitting it and breaking the protective glass, causing the canvas to break in the center. The defendant’s lawyer Glen Harris said that his client is an immature artist trying to prove something, and there is no justification for his actions.

Tate said in a press release that they are grateful to the court for carefully considering this case and assessed its outcome. Now the work has been sent for long-term restoration.

The work will take 18 months. A painting from a private collection was on display under a long-term lease agreement.