$3 MILLION PAINTING (RIGHT) SLASHED AT ART GALLERY

A man wearing sunglasses, a hat and a full beard entered a high-end art gallery in Aspen, Colorado, last Tuesday afternoon, made a beeline for a wall-sized painting by artist Christopher Wool and slashed the canvas twice with a knife or razor blade before running out. Priced at $2.95 million and titled “Untitled 2004,” the painting was “destroyed”, said Gregory Lahmi, owner of the Opera Gallery. The vandal paid no attention to any other paintings — which include works by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall — and was only inside for about 15 seconds. Mr. Lahmi said he has no idea what prompted the vandalism but in recent weeks he has received three suspicious calls from a man using a blocked phone number asking if they had a Wool painting. Aspen police have no motive, saying, “There has to be a reason someone would want to destroy this painting.”
* Is “It was ugly” a motive? (seriously, Google this guy’s paintings.)
* “Destroyed”? Two words: Scotch tape.
* It was “Untitled 2004″. Now, it’s “Garbage, 2017”.
* Dude, use your head. It WAS a $2.95 million Christopher Wool. Now, it’s a $4 million Christopher Wool-The-Painting-That-Was-Slashed.
* I know all the big names in painting but I guess I’m just not pretentious enough to have heard of this guy.
* I mean how bad is the artwork when the painter doesn’t even bother naming it?
* Wow, in the art world when they slash prices, they take it pretty literally.
* Don’t hold this against Aspen. I’m sure you have little art galleries with paintings worth this much in your town too.
* Look, we all appreciate a little audience participation but this is ridiculous.