The Carmen Tisch Incident
The most comprehensively awful thing to happen to one painting
Image: Unsplash
- Repair Cost
- Est. $10,000+ (art valued $30M+)
- Curator's Blood Pressure
- 100%
- Embarrassment Level
- 10/10
- Recovered?
- Restored
- Selfie Involved?
- No
In a single visit, an intoxicated Carmen Tisch allegedly punched, scratched, and slid against a Clyfford Still painting valued in the tens of millions — and, prosecutors said, may have urinated on it (though she reportedly missed).
The 1957 abstract canvas endured a remarkable sequence of indignities in one afternoon. Tisch, said to be drunk, reportedly leaned on it, scratched and punched the surface, and slid down against it, causing damage estimated in the tens of thousands.
Prosecutors noted she may also have urinated in its vicinity, though 'luckily she missed the painting'. The episode entered art-crime infamy as a near-complete catalogue of everything one should not do to a masterpiece, achieved by a single visitor in a single sitting.