Hans Joachim Pullmann…a tour of Europe’s museums sabotage

Recently, a number of environmental activists succeeded in drawing attention to them, after their photos topped the news bulletins and newspaper websites, next to important artworks. These activists attached their hands to the frames of these works, in order to draw attention to the issue of climate.
These attacks were not limited to the sticking of hands only, as some of these activists threw cans of soup on the glass partitions of some businesses. This is what happened at last in London; Two activists attacked the painting “Sunflowers” by Dutch artist, Van Gogh, whose price is estimated at 84 million dollars. When they did so, the two activists argued that the climate, the environment and life are “more important than art.” Soon, police rushed to the museum, and arrested the two activists on charges of criminal damage and trespassing. These protest attacks were remarkably numerous, and were distributed to a number of museums and art institutions in the capitals of Europe, from London, Paris, Rome to The Hague, Madrid, Berlin, and Australia; The latter witnessed a protest action similar to what happened in London; Two climate activists glued their hands to the glass protection of Pablo Picasso’s “Massacre in Korea” on display at a museum in Melbourne, Australia, without causing any damage to the painting.
Contrary to the motive of protest, the twentieth century witnessed many similar attacks, motivated by different motives of troubled people, or out of absurdity and the desire for fame, or sometimes vague motives. Many of these attacks had serious consequences for those targeted actions. These recent attacks on these works, were not strange or rare, they are a lighter link in a long chain of violent attacks targeting famous artworks. Among the most prominent of these attacks, for example, the smashing of the famous Pieta statue of Michelangelo in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, the tearing of a Rembrandt painting in the Netherlands, and other attacks that caused the damage of dozens of artworks
Most of these attacks on artworks were by people who did this only once, but if we look closely, we will discover that among these attackers, there was one man who committed the act of vandalizing paintings many times. This man is the German Hans-Joachim Bohlmann (1937 – 2009), who damaged dozens of priceless works of art. Pullman alone was able to spread terror among the corridors of museums across Europe for forty continuous years.. What is his story?
Hans Joachim Pullmann was born in 1937 to a poor family, and in his childhood he suffered from the cruelty of his parents. He married Pullman at the age of thirty, but this marriage ended in a painful end, after his wife died after falling from the balcony of the house. This incident was the source of a major transformation in the life of Pullman, who was suffering from depressive symptoms, and this incident contributed to the worsening of his health.
In a crazy moment, Pullman decided to direct his anger at life to a work of art, so he headed to the Hamburg City Museum, and stood in front of the first artwork he encountered, a painting of the goldfish by the prominent Swiss painter Paul Klee. Pullman took out a small syringe hidden in his pocket, which he had filled with liquid sulfuric acid, pointed it at the painting and then fled the scene, before he was discovered. The man was not satisfied with this. Over the ensuing weeks and months, attacks on artwork were major news on all German and European newscasts. The man persisted in his work, moving from one museum to another. Over the course of six months he had defaced dozens of museum paintings. Among the artworks that came under these attacks are important paintings by prominent Renaissance artists, from Lucas Cranach and Paul Rubens to Rembrandt, for whom two important works on display in the Kassel City Museum have been distorted.
After this set of attacks, Pullman, suspected of being a museum guard, was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. However, this punishment did not seem to deter him. As soon as he was released from prison, the man regained his activity. Because he was banned from all museums, this time he directed his anger at non-technical objects, vandalizing trucks parked on the roads, cutting down trees and burning ancient buildings, and poisoning animals and birds. He was sentenced to three years in prison again.