Dallas Museum of Art Break In - Summer 2022

The 21-year-old suspect, Brian Hernandez, broke into the Dallas Museum of Art around 9:40 p.m. Wednesday. Photo by Raymond Boyd / Getty Images

June 3, 2022

Exterior of the Dallas Museum of Art

On Wednesday, what started as an argument between a Dallas man and his girlfriend ended in as much as $5 million worth of damage to ancient artifacts housed at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA).

Security cameras caught 21-year-old Brian Hernandez holding a metal chair outside the Texas museum’s entrance around 9:40 p.m. The footage then shows him “walking from room to room, smashing display cases and the items inside,” writes NBC News’ Claire Cardona.

Angry at his girlfriend after their argument, Hernandez—for reasons unknown—decided to break into the museum and destroy some of the oldest pieces in its collection. As Tommy Cummings reports for the Dallas Morning News, he used a metal stool to shatter glass cases and damage multiple ancient Greek objects, including a sixth-century B.C.E. amphora depicting combat scenes from the Trojan War and a black-figure kylix, or wide drinking cup, dated to between 550 and 530 B.C.E. and decorated with vignettes of Heracles fighting the Nemean lion.

Hernandez also broke a red-figure pyxis, or cylindrical box that held jewels, perfume bottles or cosmetics. Portrayals of women in domestic settings adorn the artifact.

Next, Hernandez utilized a hand sanitizer stand to destroy a glass case that held the Batah Kuhuh Alligator Gar Fish Effigy Bottle, a 2018 ceramic piece by Native American artist Chase Kahwinhut Earles. He destroyed the artwork by slamming it “to the ground,” reports NBC News.

Black-figure kylix Dallas Museum of Art

Police initially placed the total value of the amphora and pyxis at roughly $5 million. The kylix was worth $100,000, while the effigy bottle was valued at $10,000. Per the Dallas Morning News, museum director Agustín Arteaga later said in a statement that “the real total could be a fraction of the original $5 million estimate.”

Police officers arrived at the museum around 30 minutes after Hernandez was spotted outside, according to an arrest warrant obtained by WFAA’s Paul Wedding. A museum security guard called the police when they realized someone was inside the building after hours. When authorities arrived, Hernandez was “sitting on a bench inside, where the guard told him to stay,” according to the warrant.

A statement released by the DMA on Thursday indicated that no one was harmed in the break-in and that the museum would remain open to visitors.

“This was an isolated incident perpetrated by one individual acting alone, whose intent was not theft of art or any objects on view at the museum,” the statement reads.

Hernandez was charged with criminal mischief greater than $300,000 and is currently being held at Dallas County Jail on a $100,000 bond, reports CBS News’ Julia Falcon.

“The items inside of the display cases that were destroyed are rare ancient artifacts that are extremely precious and one of a kind,” says Hernandez’s arrest sheet, per NBC News.

The Dallas break-in comes less than a week after a man dressed as an elderly woman leapt out of a wheelchair at the Louvre and smeared cake on the glass covering Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

“There are people who are destroying the Earth,” said the man in a video captured by an onlooker, per Agence France-Presse (AFP). “… That’s why I did this. Think of the planet.”

The damaged Pietà Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

On display to the public with little protection, art is often at risk of destruction by museum visitors who have something to prove or are simply having a bad day.

In 1972, Hungarian man Laszlo Toth took a hammer to the Pietà, Michelangelo’s sculptural masterwork of Jesus Christ lying in the Virgin Mary’s arms. The 15 hammer hits dealt by Toth knocked off parts of Mary’s left arm, nose and an eyelid; according to Wanted in Rome, experts painstakingly restored the artwork before putting it back on view behind bulletproof glass.

Other artworks have been subjected to similar indignities. Rembrandt van Rijn’s sprawling Night Watch, for instance, was the target of two separate knife attacks, first in 1911 and then in 1975.

For the people overseeing the DMA’s artifacts, the focus is on picking up the pieces—perhaps literally. Board member Mary McDermott Cook, whose parents donated more than 3,100 artworks to the museum, learned of the incident the following morning, when Arteaga called her personally. It “made me sick to my stomach,” she tells the Dallas Morning News.

“I feel like everything has gone nuts, and this is one thing that went nuts,” Cook says. “But what I also said is, ‘Let’s face it. It’s just things. No person was hurt. And we have the technology and the expertise to put broken things back together.’ And thank God for that.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/man-steals-5-million-of-art-including-ancient-greek-artifacts-from-dallas-museum-180980192/

Dallas Museum of Art Confident of Restoring Objects Destroyed During Last Month's Break-in

by Prateek Dasgupta

July 7, 2022

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is confident that it can restore the valuable Ancient Greek Art and current Native American Art that was destroyed in a terrible break-in a month ago. Fran Baas, who is in charge of the museum's conservation team, says that even the smallest pieces that were broken during the break-in are recovered.

After he got into a fight with his girlfriend, 21-year-old Brian Hernandez broke into the museum and damaged valuable artwork at the DMA. 

One of the broken pieces was an amphora from the 6th century BC that had a picture of the Trojan War on it. Another was a black figure kylix, which is a type of ancient Greek wide drinking cup. A red-figure pyxis and vignettes of the Greek hero Heracles fighting the Nemean lion were also broken by the intruder. The pyxis is a round box that was used in ancient Greece to store things like cosmetics and jewelry.

Hernandez also smashed a Native American ceramic item of art. Native American artist Chase Kahwinhut Earles made the Batah Kuhuh Alligator Garfish Effigy Bottle out of ceramic in 2018.

Baas says that the conservation team has found all the pieces that are broken and is sure they can put them back together. But they can't start making repairs until the museum's leaders give them the go-ahead.

"Modern conservation must consider the appropriate adhesives and techniques, as well as the potential research opportunities that could develop. Luckily, we have full documentation and high-resolution photography of the objects prior to the incident that we can reference"- Fran Bass, Head of Conservation, Dallas Museum of Art.

The restoration team has to deal with a number of problems. Even after putting the pieces back together, you can still see the damage. There is also the question of whether the restored object is stable enough to be put on display.

Ceramic flakes might have turned into dust, so the pottery would need to be filled with something else. The damage could have caused distortions. Even if all the parts are there, they might not fit together perfectly.

“We have ways of in-painting the surface, find the right colors, the right gloss, the translucency, fine tool marks — we can do all of that. But what would be the desired effect or outcome?”- Susanne Gänsicke, Head of Antiquities, J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Experts are divided over the outcomes of the restoration and if the efforts will be worth it. But the DMA's conservators are sure that they will be able to fix the objects without changing the way the aesthetics.

https://original.newsbreak.com/@prateek-dasgupta-1588200/2656646812294-dallas-museum-of-art-confident-of-restoring-objects-destroyed-during-last-month-s-break-in