Man arrested after throwing soup at painting in Cork’s Crawford Art Gallery

A 26-year-old man has been arrested after throwing soup on a painting at Crawford Art Gallery in Cork this evening.

Gardaí were alerted shortly before 5pm following reports of an alleged incident of criminal damage at the gallery on Emmet Place in Cork city.

“It’s understood a liquid substance was thrown on a painting in the course of the incident,” a Garda spokesman said.

The man was arrested at the scene and is being detained at Bridewell Garda Station in Cork.

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“Enquiries are ongoing,” the Garda spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for the Crawford Art Gallery said that a person entered its Modern Gallery on the second floor of the building and “proceeded to throw soup at one of the artworks on the wall.”

“The work was glazed so damage is minimal and mostly to the surrounding wall area,” she said. “Gallery security and staff were there immediately and the perpetrator was detained until Gardaí arrived.”

The gallery said the section of the gallery affected will close temporarily until a clean-up is carried out.

Mary McCarthy, the gallery’s director, told The Irish Times that the person did not make a statement or post anything on social media concerning the incident so they were unaware of the motivation behind it.

She said that the gallery believe that this was a “random” incident at this stage and that it wasn’t targeted any one particular painting

The incident follows a spate of protests impacting museums and artworks in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands by environmental activists.

The man, who is from north Cork, was later charged with criminal damage and released on station bail to appear at Cork District Court later in the month.