From the Tears of Jesus book:

This incident reminded people of the destruction of Michelangelo’s Pietà on May 21, 1972. That act was committed by Laszlo Toth, a Hungarian born in Australia.

On that day in 1972, many people attended Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, hoping to be blessed by Pope Paul VI. Laszlo Toth went into the crowd and waited for a chance to break through the guard, and then he attacked the Pietà.

“I am Jesus Christ!” he cried out many times and hit the statue with an iron hammer and broke the arms of Mary, who was sorrowfully holding her son Jesus, taken down from the cross. He also injured the nose and the eyebrows of Mary. However, he did not touch the image of Jesus himself.

Laszlo Toth was sentenced to nine years in prison. Mass media worldwide sensationalized the already shocking incident, categorizing it as an act of terrorism against great art and culture. Many newspapers used the eye-catching headline: “Jesus hits Mother Mary!”

Facts

Laszlo Toth (Tóth László in Hungarian) (born 1940), is a Hungarian-born Australian geologist. He achieved worldwide notoriety when he vandalised Michelangelo's Pietà statue on 21 May 1972. Toth was not charged with any criminal offence after the incident. He was hospitalized in Italy for two years. On his release, he was immediately deported to Australia, where he apparently still resides.

Toth, wielding a geologist's hammer and shouting, "I am Jesus Christ — risen from the dead", attacked the statue, with fifteen blows removed Mary's arm at the elbow, knocked off a chunk of her nose, and chipped one of her eyelids. Toth was subdued by bystanders, including American sculptor Bob Cassilly, who was the first person to pull him away from The Pietà. He was never charged with the crime, in view of his apparent insanity. On 29 January 1973, he was committed to an Italian psychiatric hospital. He was released on 9 February 1975, and was immediately deported to Australia where he had studied prior to the attack; Australian authorities did not detain him. He resides in a nursing home in Strathfield, NSW, Australia.

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