Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack on a work of art depicting pedophilia

Controversial Swiss artist Mirian Kan, whose painting at Tokyo Palace was damaged on Sunday. Credit: Quim Llenas/Getty Images Europe

Emmanuel Macron defended a controversial painting by a Swiss artist that critics say depicts pedophilia after it was vandalized in the Palais de Tokyo on Sunday.

“An attack on a work of art is an attack on our values,” said the French. the President wrote on Twitter.

“In France, art is always free, and respect for artistic creativity is guaranteed,” he added.

The painting by the Swiss artist Miriam Kahn, titled “F— Abstraction!” depicts a small man with his hands tied behind his back, performing oral sex on an imposing, featureless figure.

The painting will continue to display while suffering damage from the paint attack

Critics, including children's rights organizations and far-right political groups, allege that the smaller figure in the painting depicts a child: an accusation Kahn vehemently denies.

Rather, the 73-year-old artist says the painting depicts, how rape is being used as a weapon of war, especially in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Last month, defending a lawsuit to remove the painting, Kahn wrote that the size between the two figures is a metaphor depicting «bodily strength the oppressor and the fragility of the oppressed.”

In a mid-April decision, France's Supreme Court ruled that the artwork should be left on display.

«Of course it's hard to watch»

On Monday, French Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak visited the museum. Palais de Tokyo defended the painting, denouncing the defacement as «a direct attack on freedom of expression.»

She added: «These works are certainly hard to look at, but they begin with the intention of denouncing the horrors of war.»< /p>

According to a source close to the police investigation into the vandalism, an «older man» who was «unhappy with the sexual depiction of a child and an adult» walked into the exhibition on Sunday and spray-painted purple paint on the piece.

p>

Tokyo Palace reports that the man «was immediately detained by security guards» before he was taken away by the police. The Museum of Modern Art also said it would «complaint for damage to property and freedom of expression.»

The painting, which has attracted about 80,000 visitors so far, will remain on display until the end of the exhibition. May 14.