Jeff Koons exhibition at Whitney Museum is vandalized

A small section of the Jeff Koons retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art was vandalized Wednesday, but no works of art were damaged, according to the New York museum.

A man threw red paint on a blank wall of the third floor of the exhibition and scrawled a name underneath it. The museum confirmed the vandalism in a brief statement, saying that “no artwork was affected or damaged in any way. Guards quickly apprehended the individual responsible. The police were called and they removed the individual from the museum.”

The Whitney said that the third floor of the museum was closed after the incident, in accordance with security protocol, and reopened within two hours.

Photos that claim to depict the act of vandalism show red paint forming an “X” on the wall. Beneath the paint is a name that is largely illegible but that at least one art blog has deciphered as “Monty Cantsin.”

Vandalism at major museums is uncommon but not unheard of. Earlier this year, a visitor smashed a valuable vase that was featured in the traveling Ai Weiwei exhibition at the Perez Art Museum Miami. In 2012, a Mark Rothko painting was vandalized at London’s Tate Modern museum.

Twitter: @DavidNgLAT