Tarascon - French artist Pierre Pinoncelli was fined nearly 300,000 francs (£36,150) yesterday for damaging a porcelain urinal that was the work of Marcel Duchamp, a figure of the early 20th century avant-garde artistic movement.
Pinoncelli was prosecuted on a complaint by the Culture Ministry after urinating in the urinal and hitting it with a hammer at an exhibition in Nimes, southern France, in 1993.
Pinoncelli (69) said he urinated in the work of art "to restore to it its real value" and hammered it to protest at "the art market going to the dogs".