Unexplained Attack on Artworks and Antiquities in Berlin's Museums [UPDATED]

Western European museums claim that they can 'look after' other people's cultural heritage better than the source countries, so "for the objects' own safety, they should stay in western collections". According to research by Zeit and Deutschlandfunk, after the Berlin Museumsinseln's institutions were reopened to the public after being in lockdown because of the Coronavirus, objects were damaged in more than three museums on October 3, 2020. Embarrassingly for the museums, for more than two weeks, neither the public nor other museums that might be at risk were informed about this, one of the most extensive attacks on works of art and antiquities in the history of post-war Germany (Stefan Koldehoff, Tobias Timm, 'Anschlag auf Kunstwerke und Antiken auf der Berliner Museumsinsel', Zeit Online October 20, 2020). See also: Philip Oltermann, 'Vandalism of museum artefacts 'linked to conspiracy theorists' the Guardian 20 Oct 2020  

One or more unknown perpetrators had sprayed at least 70 objects in the Pergamon Museum, the New Museum, the Old National Gallery and other locations with an oily liquid that left visible stains.  The objects attacked included Egyptian sarcophagi, stone sculptures and paintings from the 19th century. Nothing is known about the motives behind the attack so far and no organisation has yet claimed responsibility. 

Die Zeit and the Guardian have linked the museum island attack to conspiracy theories pushed through social media channels by prominent coronavirus deniers in recent months that have claimed that the Pergamon Museum, which at that time was still closed due to corona, was the "Throne of Satan" and that it was the centre of the "global Satanist scene and corona criminals", announcing "here they make their human sacrifices at night and violate children!" 

One such theory claims that the Pergamon Museum is the centre of the “global satanism scene” because it holds a reconstruction of the ancient Greek Pergamon Altar. Attila Hildmann, a former vegan celebrity chef who has become one of Germany’s best-known proponents of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, posted messages on Telegram in August and September in which he suggested that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was using the altar for “human sacrifices”. On Tuesday night Hildmann, who has over 100,000 followers on his public Telegram channel, posted a link to the Deutschlandfunk article with the words: “Fact! It is the throne of Baal (Satan).” 

The Guardian links this to another recent event: 

In 2018 two women were arrested in the Greek capital, Athens, after smearing museum exhibits at the National Museum of History with an oily substance. The two women, later identified as being of Bulgarian origin, told police they were spraying the artworks with oil and myrrh “because the Holy Scripture says it is miraculous”.

There are few details, a brief account here and here. It would be interesting to see a spectrograph of the oils extracted from both attacks. 

Update 23rd Oct 2020

Photos have been published showing the damage to the antiquities, which does look like some kind of "annointing", but no information has been supplied about which paintings were attacked and whether there was a common theme.

In a statement shared yesterday, German culture minister Monika Grütters asked for a comprehensive report on the attacks  [...] including an assessment of how similar events can be prevented in the future. At a conference on museum security[last autumn], Grütters said that museums were insufficiently prepared for possible crimes. But as commentators writing for the German national daily Die Zeit pointed out, museums and the country’s government are unlikely to be “comfortable” providing information about their own security in the wake of demands for restitution of artworks taken during the colonial era, “which are still being answered with the argument of alleged security problems in African countries.”