Monet Painting Damaged in Attack

Oct 08, 08:10 AM

Current Headlines: --PARIS Intruders, apparently drunk, broke into the Orsay Museum early yesterday and punched a hole in a renowned work by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, Le Pont d'Argenteuil, right. A camera caught a group of four or five people entering the museum, which houses a major Impressionist collection. An alarm rang and they fled, but they were not caught. The Culture Minister, Christine Albanel, said the painting could be restored, but called it an attack on "our memory, our heritage. It appears they were drunk ...[and] someone punched the magnificent masterpiece." The alarms went off, but the group were able to flee, she said. (AP)

(c) 2007 Independent, The; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.