Drawing by Leonardo Hit by Gun Blast

A man firing a shotgun damaged a popular Leonardo da Vinci drawing in the National Gallery on Friday night, police said. The man was immediately arrested.

The drawing, which police said was worth as much as $8 million, is called “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist.”

It was protected by reinforced glass, and the damage was confined to an area of the virgin’s clothing, the gallery said.

A police spokesman who refused to identify himself said the shot was fired just before the 6 p.m., closing time at the gallery, which occupies most of the north side of Trafalgar Square in central London.

The suspect was not immediately identified. Scotland Yard said he was under arrest but charges had not yet been filed.

The gallery said its conservators were examining the drawing by the Italian Renaissance master, one of the gallery’s most popular works. Its press officer, Lindsay Callender, said it was too early to assess the damage, though none of the faces of the four figures in the drawing were harmed.

‘Delicate Work of Art’

“It is an extremely delicate work of art. At this stage we wouldn’t like to give any assessment of the damage,” she said.

When the drawing was acquired for the nation in 1962 through public fund raising and government donation, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan described it as “one of the most beautiful things in the world.”

To purchase the drawing, the public donated 800,000 pounds (then worth $2.24 million) and the government gave another 350,000 pounds.

The drawing was the subject of an attack that year. It was damaged by a bottle of ink, allegedly thrown by a German painter who was eventually judged insane.

The National Gallery building was erected between 1832 and 1838. The state-funded institution now owns more than 2,000 pictures.