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Incidents

In the National Gallery on 10 March 1914, Velázquez's Rokeby Venus was damaged by Mary Richardson, a campaigner for women's suffrage, in protest against the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst the previous day. Later that month another suffragette attacked five Bellinis, causing the gallery to close until the start of the First World War, when the Women's Social and Political Union called for an end to violent acts drawing attention to their plight.

In August 1961 an unemployed bus driver, Kempton Bunton, stole Goya 's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, in what remains the only successful theft from the gallery. Four years later, Bunton returned the painting voluntarily. Following a high-profile trial, he was found not guilty of stealing the painting, but guilty of stealing the frame.

In July 1987, a man entered the gallery armed with a shotgun concealed under his coat and shot Leonardo's cartoon of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist. The man, Robert Cambridge, told police that his intent had been to express his disgust with "political, social and economic conditions in Britain". Though the pellets did not penetrate the cartoon, it had to undergo extensive restoration. It was placed back on display the following year.

Vincent van Gogh 's Sunflowers was attacked at the gallery on 14 October 2022 by environmental activists from the Just Stop Oil campaign, who threw tomato soup at it. Due to the protection of the plexiglass, the painting was not harmed, but there was some minor damage to the frame, according to a spokesperson for the gallery.

On 6 November 2023, the Rokeby Venus was again attacked, by two Just Stop Oil activists who smashed its protective glass with hammers.