2. The Pieta In St. Peter’s Basilica Hammered
In 1972 Hungarian-born Lazlo Toth took a hammer to the Pieta in St. Peter’s Basilica, disfiguring the face of the madonna and shattering the left arm. The vandal, was described as wielding a geologist’s hammer and shouting, “I am Jesus Christ – risen from the dead” while attacking the Michelangelo’s Pietà in Vatican City with fifteen blows that removed Mary’s arm at the elbow, knocked off a chunk of her nose, and chipped one of her eyelids. Toth was subdued by bystanders, including American sculptor Bob Cassilly, who was the first person to pull him away from his act of art destruction. But Toth was never charged with the crime, due to his rather obvious insanity. On 29 January 1973, he was committed to an Italian psychiatric hospital. The Messianic art vandal was released in 1975, and was immediately deported to Australia where he had studied prior to the art attack; Australian authorities did not detain him. He resided in a nursing home in Strathfield, New South Wales until his death in 2012.