“On July 19, 2007, police arrested Cambodian-French artist Rindy Sam after she kissed one panel of Twombly’s triptych Phaedrus. The panel, an all-white canvas, was smudged by Sam’s red lipstick. She was tried in a court in Avignon for “voluntary degradation of a work of art”.
Sam defended her gesture to the court: “J’ai fait juste un bisou. C’est un geste d’amour, quand je l’ai embrassé, je n’ai pas réfléchi, je pensais que l’artiste, il aurait compris… Ce geste était un acte artistique provoqué par le pouvoir de l’art” “It was just a kiss, a loving gesture. I kissed it without thinking; I thought the artist would understand…. It was an artistic act provoked by the power of Art”
