WASHINGTON: A woman accused of pounding on a painting by Paul Gauguin and trying to rip it from a wall at the National Gallery of Art told police the post-Impressionist artist was evil and the painting should be burned, court documents show. Susan Burns, 53, who lives in suburban Virginia, has been charged with attempted second-degree theft and destruction of property after the attack Friday. She was being held without bail pending a mental health hearing Tuesday. The Gauguin painting, “Two Tahitian Women,” valued at an estimated $80 million, was not damaged and will go back on view Tuesday. The picture is on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for an exhibit titled “Gauguin: Maker of Myth.” According to charging documents, an investigator told Burns her rights and asked why she had tried to remove the painting.
