SAN FRANCISCO -- A spokesman for the De Young museum says the facility's security patrol will be beefed up after a vandal splattered red paint on a Rubens masterpiece.
Gus Teller, the museum's deputy director of operations, said new patrols would be hired and the 'substantial number of daytime guards' would increase their patrols 'where the most vulnerable paintings are.'
The confessed vandal, Glen-Allen McKeever, 44, was arrested Wednesday after he threw about half a cup of red acrylinc paint on 'The Tribute Money' by Peter Paul Rubens.
The self-described radical and gay activist said he defaced the 1612 masterpiece 'to protest the greediest society ever.'
He said he was angry at the museum because an expert there disagreed that a painting he bought for $400 on Lombard Street is a valuable 19th-century work by American artist Albert Bierstadt.
McKeever was charged with felony malicious mischief and burglary. He was held in San Francisco City Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Museum spokesman Charles Lang said the Rubens was not protected by plexiglas because of its large size. He said large sheets of plexiglas can trap air and moisture against the surface, causing deterioration of the painting.
The Rubens, which was purchased in 1944 for more than $80,000, should be back on display in about a week with a new coat of protective varnish. It is now valued at over $1 million.
