Millions of tourists and pilgrims who visit the Vatican marvel at the statue of the Virgin Mary holding the dead Jesus that greets you near the entrance to Saint Peter’s Basilica. But in 1972, it was a scene of horror. A madman claiming to be Jesus Christ took a hammer and began smashing the beautiful sculpture. He attacked La Pieta in a frenzy and the damage done seemed unrepairable.
He chipped Mary’s nose and then part of her eyelid and veil before knocking off fingers on her left hand and finally severing her left arm just above the elbow. Tourists rushed forward to stop the attack – including an American sculptor, shaken by the spectacle. The perpetrator apparently yelled ‘Christ is Risen’ as he was led away. It turned out he was a Hungarian – Laszlo Toth, aged 33 – who was then a resident of Sydney, Australia. One report claimed that while women nearby wept to see what Toth was doing – some men wanted to ‘lynch’ him.
Ironically, there had already been a plan to put La Pieta behind unbreakable glass. Too late to stop it being attacked. One British newspaper – the Daily Mirror – dubbed Toth: The Vatican Vandal.
Pope Paul VI went to view the damage and openly wept at the madonna’s scarred face. Note the chipped nose and eyelid in the image below. Appalling to see this disfigurement. At the time, there were widespread fears that the artwork could not be restored back to its original state.
In February 1973, an Italian judge committed Toth to a psychiatric institution for two years. He was judged to have been insane when he attacked La Pieta. The following month, the sculpture was put back on display fully restored. Nearly a decade before, La Pieta was shipped to the World Fair in New York in 1964, which caused a great degree of apprehension about its safety. Since then, it has sat behind glass where I saw it this week on a trip to Rome. It remains a stunning masterpiece.
