scottb
08-02-2001, 12:12 AM
First, the background story:
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HAMBURG, Germany (AFP) - A mentally-deranged vandal -- who threw sulfuric acid at several paintings by Albrecht Duerer (1471-1528) at a gallery in Munich in 1988 -- has escaped from a mental asylum in Hamburg, police said Monday.
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann, 60, badly damaged three works by Duerer on April 21, 1988, in the Bavarian capital. For that, he was sentenced in 1989 to two years imprisonment and was then interned at an asylum in Hamburg.
On Monday after taking his daily walk in an unguarded area of the asylum, he disappeared and police launched a search for him on Monday night.
In 1979, Bohlmann was jailed for five years for vandalizing works by the old masters at museums in northern Germany.
The acid attack on the Duerer paintings caused damage estimated at the time at 67 million marks ($36 million US). It took several years of patient work to restore the paintings.
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From Reuters: an update on this story:
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Scourge of Art World Returns to Clinic
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's art galleries breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday after a deranged man who destroys priceless paintings by hurling acid on them returned to a psychiatric hospital after a two-day jaunt.
"It is one less danger,'' said the director of Hamburg's Kunsthalle art gallery, Uwe Schneede. "But I always worry something might happen (to the paintings).''
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann, 63, known as the "acid assassin,'' damaged 56 works of art including church altars and paintings by old masters such as Albrecht Duerer and Rembrandt, starting in the late 1970s.
His favored technique was pouring a bottle of sulfuric acid over the works and during his "career'' is estimated to have caused around $121 million worth of damage.
After his release from a five-year jail sentence, Bohlmann attacked another three paintings in Munich in 1988. He was finally sent to a psychiatric institute in 1990 after being sentenced for a second time.
The police were immediately informed on Monday after Bohlmann failed to return from day release from the psychiatric clinic in Hamburg, and museums and galleries all over Germany were alerted.
"He planned to come back from the beginning,'' said Guntram Knecht, director of the ward where Bohlmann is cared for.
"He visited old places and parks which he knew from earlier in his life. He didn't go to any churches or museums.''
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HAMBURG, Germany (AFP) - A mentally-deranged vandal -- who threw sulfuric acid at several paintings by Albrecht Duerer (1471-1528) at a gallery in Munich in 1988 -- has escaped from a mental asylum in Hamburg, police said Monday.
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann, 60, badly damaged three works by Duerer on April 21, 1988, in the Bavarian capital. For that, he was sentenced in 1989 to two years imprisonment and was then interned at an asylum in Hamburg.
On Monday after taking his daily walk in an unguarded area of the asylum, he disappeared and police launched a search for him on Monday night.
In 1979, Bohlmann was jailed for five years for vandalizing works by the old masters at museums in northern Germany.
The acid attack on the Duerer paintings caused damage estimated at the time at 67 million marks ($36 million US). It took several years of patient work to restore the paintings.
---
From Reuters: an update on this story:
---
Scourge of Art World Returns to Clinic
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's art galleries breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday after a deranged man who destroys priceless paintings by hurling acid on them returned to a psychiatric hospital after a two-day jaunt.
"It is one less danger,'' said the director of Hamburg's Kunsthalle art gallery, Uwe Schneede. "But I always worry something might happen (to the paintings).''
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann, 63, known as the "acid assassin,'' damaged 56 works of art including church altars and paintings by old masters such as Albrecht Duerer and Rembrandt, starting in the late 1970s.
His favored technique was pouring a bottle of sulfuric acid over the works and during his "career'' is estimated to have caused around $121 million worth of damage.
After his release from a five-year jail sentence, Bohlmann attacked another three paintings in Munich in 1988. He was finally sent to a psychiatric institute in 1990 after being sentenced for a second time.
The police were immediately informed on Monday after Bohlmann failed to return from day release from the psychiatric clinic in Hamburg, and museums and galleries all over Germany were alerted.
"He planned to come back from the beginning,'' said Guntram Knecht, director of the ward where Bohlmann is cared for.
"He visited old places and parks which he knew from earlier in his life. He didn't go to any churches or museums.''
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