Woman Punches, Rubs Butt On $30 Million Painting

36-year-old Carmen Tisch was arrested after she she punched a $30 million painting and then pulled down her pants and began rubbing up against the oil-on-oil canvas known as “1957-J no.2.”

According to museum curators Tisch caused nearly $10,000 worth of damage to the abstract expressionist piece by Clyfford Still.

As should be expected Tisch was quickly charged with felony criminal mischief and has been held on $20,000 bond since late December.

A police report at the time of the incident says Tisch was drunk.

Fortunately Denver art gallery owner Ivar Zeile, told the Denver Post that because the canvas wasn’t pierced the painting can likely be restored.

“It does damage the piece, though, even people just knowing what happened,” he added.

The damaged artwork comes just after Denver worked for years with Still’s widow to secure enough works to start a single-artist museum. In fact last year Sotheby’s auctions off four works for $114 million to endow the Denver Museum which opened to great fanfare in November 2011.

Adding to the excitement of Clyfford Still work was the fact that he had closely guarded many of his pieces which meant many were on display for the very first time.

In the meantime Tisch will be formally made aware of all charges against her on Friday.

Do you think Carmen Tisch should be responsible for the entire value of the painting or is the $10,000 in damages enough to teach her a lesson? Perhaps being known as the “butt rubbing” criminal for the rest of her life is punishment enough.