HOUSTON (AP) ― A man accused of vandalizing a 1929 Pablo Picasso painting in a Texas museum ― an act that was caught on cellphone video ― agreed Tuesday to a two-year prison term as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. His lawyer called his act “an artistic statement.’’
Uriel Landeros had faced felony graffiti and criminal mischief charges accusing him of spray-painting “Woman in a Red Armchair’’ with an image of a bullfighter, a bull and the word “conquista,’’ the Spanish word for conquest.
Landeros, a 22-year-old U.S. citizen, fled to Mexico after the incident. He surrendered to authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border in January.
Emily Detoto, Landeros’ attorney, said her client agreed to plead guilty to the graffiti charge in exchange for a minimal prison sentence. The other charge was dropped. Landeros had faced up to 10 years in prison.
The painting was damaged June 13, and a bystander captured the act in a 24-second video that was posted on YouTube.
Detoto said Landeros wanted the criminal mischief charge dismissed because he believed “what he did to the painting was not criminal mischief, it was an artistic statement, an expression, much like graffiti art is.’’
Detoto said there is a good chance her client could be quickly paroled. He will get credit for the five months in jail he’s already served, and she noted the crime wasn’t violent.
Menil Collection spokesman Vance Muse said the painting’s restoration “is close to completion.’’
It was not the first time one of Picasso’s works has been vandalized. In 1999, an escaped mental patient in Amsterdam cut a hole in his “Woman Nude Before Garden,’’ a 1956 painting.
