Man who damaged Picasso painting at Tate Modern is jailed

A man who damaged an oil painting by Pablo Picasso while it was on display at Tate Modern has been jailed for 18 months.

Shakeel Massey, 20, damaged the artist’s 1944 painting Bust of a Woman at the central London gallery on December 28 2019.

The artwork was painted during the Nazi occupation of France during the Second World War in Picasso’s studio at Rue des Grands-Augustins in Paris, the Tate said.

It depicts fellow artist and photographer Dora Maar in a “semi-abstract” style, wearing a green dress.

Massey, of Clarendon Court in Willesden Green, north-west London, who admitted one charge of criminal damage following the incident, was jailed at Inner London Crown Court.