Why the sudden trend to attack paintings?  The defacing of the
Queen's portrait is the latest act of art vandalism, including a
Mark Rothko at Tate Modern and a Delacroix at the Lens Louvre
The Queen’s portrait and (right) an image of it after the
attack. Photograph: Getty Images  Is there a sudden fashion
for attacking works of art? The recent paint assault
on a portrait of the Queen in Westminster Abbey was the latest
in a stream of acts of art vandalism.  Last October at Tate
Modern a man scribbled on Mark Rothko's Black on Maroon. He
claimed his destructive act was a creative gesture, but this cut
no ice with a judge, who sentenced him to two years in prison.
This February, a woman defaced one of the icons of French art,
Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix, at the new outpost of
the Louvre in Lens.  That is three highly publicised art attacks
in less than a year. It looks as if a shared spirit is gripping
the assailants. In all three cases over just a few months, each
attacker thought she or he was ma