LONDON -- A man who pulled a sawed-off shotgun from his jacket and fired on a sketch by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci in Britain's National Gallery may have irreparably damaged the 16th century masterpiece, an art expert said Saturday.
The man, identified as Robert Arthur Cambridge, 37, an unemployed resident of south London, was held in custody on charges of causing criminal damages. He was scheduled to appear in court Monday, authorities said.
Museum officials said they expected to know the extent of the damage to the sketch by Tuesday.
The attack on the sketch, which is valued at up to $30 million, occurred just before museum closing time Friday night. After firing, the gunman sat quietly in a chair -- the gun at his side -- until he was arrested, police said.
'The man was just sitting down -- he was sitting a bit like the 'Thinker,'' said Dennis Bethel, head of the gallery's security, referring to the famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin. 'He was extremely subdued. Everybody tried to talk to him but he said nothing.'
Police, who questioned him Saturday, released no information on a possible motive.
Officials at Britain's most popular art museum, overlooking Trafalgar Square, said it was too soon to determine the extent of the damage to da Vinci's 'Cartoon' -- a 479-year-old charcoal sketch of the Madonna and the infant Jesus, St. Anne and St. John the Baptist.
The sketch was protected by a glass cover but an independent expert said the damage probably was irreparable.
'The gunman has damaged something intrinsically whole so it is irreparably damaged,' said Jane McAusland, an independent expert conservator of art on paper. 'With a cartoon (sketch), the chalk lies directly on the paper and so if it is damaged by gunshot, one can do work to resurrect it but it is damaged forever. There is no way to repair the fibers of paper.'
The sketch had been attacked before -- with a bottle of ink hurled by a deranged German painter in 1962 -- and was restored.
In the latest incident, police sources said the gunman walked into the gallery's special 11-foot, humidity-controlled room for the da Vinci work, pulled the sawed-off shotgun from under his leather jacket and fired at the drawing. No one else was in the room.
Museum experts said the damage -- from the shattering of a glass plate protecting the painting -- was confined to a 6-inch area of the 55-by-41-inch work.
'Fortunately the 'Cartoon' was protected by reinforced glass and we now know that the damage is confined within a relatively small area (of the sketch) measuring approximately 6 inches square,' said Gallery Director Neil MacGregor. 'The Gallery's Conservation Department is now carrying out a detailed scientific examination.'
He said the gallery should know by Tuesday the 'extent of the damage and how we intend to proceed with its repair.'
Museum officials had at first thought the sketch was damaged by a shotgun pellet. But the analysis confirmed a section of the virgin's clothing was instead damaged by a shard of glass blasted into the painting, museum officials said.
Da Vinci completed the sketch in 1508 and experts said they believed it was brought to Britain in the mid-18th century from Venice.
It was bought for the National Gallery in 1962 for $1.7 million and has since become the gallery's most popular work, museum officials said.
