# Urinal Damaged in Paris **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 6, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786 "2006-01-06T20:04:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/1 "2006-01-06T20:04:34Z")
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060106/lf\_afp/afplifestylefranceart\_060106144405](http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060106/lf_afp/afplifestylefranceart_060106144405) The hitch is that the urinal in question is the famous Dada-ist work **Fountain** by Marcel Duchamp. Here’s what gets me: > [@](#): > > Police said it was the second time the old man had brutalized “Fountain”. In 1993, he attacked it while it was part of an exhibition in Nimes, southern France. The same guy did it before! You’d think they’d be more careful, since someone tried to damage it once already. It ain’t the **Pieta** , but they should still try to keep it safe. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/2 "2006-01-06T20:05:37Z")
Didn’t it also get ‘vandalised’ while on display at Tate Modern in London, when a wannabe conceptual artist pissed in it? ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/3 "2006-01-06T20:57:52Z")
The BBC news bulletins are saying that he claims it was ‘performance art’. Talk about taking the piss. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/4 "2006-01-06T21:24:35Z")
I’m glad. It’s a freaking standard issue urinal for ogs sake!! Go take another one out of a stall some place. To me calling the urinal “art” is when art jumped the shark. No wonder art classes aren’t being taught anymore and the vast majority of people don’t go to museums. The whole art community is a circle jerk of talentless buffoon trying to avoid doing any real work. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/5 "2006-01-06T21:26:23Z")
I tend to scan titles fairly quickly. This leads to some mis-reads. For example, this time I thought it said ‘Penis damaged in urinal’. ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Haniver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Jenny\_Haniver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Haniver)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/6 "2006-01-06T21:31:41Z")
That article says the urinal is “considered a seminal piece to come from the early 19th-century,” and then goes on to say it was made in 1917. Argh! ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/7 "2006-01-06T22:07:10Z")
Wasn’t that a joke? I mean calling the urinal art, not the stealing it. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/8 "2006-01-06T22:14:45Z")
> [@Jenny Haniver](#): > > That article says the urinal is “considered a seminal piece to come from the early 19th-century,” and then goes on to say it was made in 1917. > > Argh! Argh, indeed! Who would want to use a seminal toilet? ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/9 "2006-01-06T22:25:34Z")
I have trouble taking this story seriously. I mean, c’mon. A urinal. In Paris? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/10 "2006-01-06T23:41:08Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Didn’t it also get ‘vandalised’ while on display at Tate Modern in London, when a wannabe conceptual artist pissed in it? Or a wannabe critic, a la **History of the World, Part I**? I’m waiting for somebody to vandalize it by doctoring it with a faked, but plausible-looking, image of the Virgin. Now, that’d be a museum clusterf@\*% I’d pay to see! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Taters](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taters/32/2845_2.png) [@Taters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taters)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/11 "2006-01-07T01:48:08Z")
As I was scrolling down the forum I first read this as “Urinal Damaged in Penis”, not Paris. Sheesh, I need to pay attention. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/12 "2006-01-07T02:44:47Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > . . .No wonder art classes aren’t being taught anymore . . . That’ll certainly be news to all those art majors I see getting up to go to lecture at 8 AM. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/13 "2006-01-07T02:56:12Z")
This is absolutely beautiful. Just imagine it as a Patti Smith song - I nearly am tearing up. "The urnial was being a display for dadist art From the other end of the exhibit a rhythm was generating An old man was sliding up the display He merged perfectly with the display He merged perfectly, the urnial in the display The urinal looked at Warren, the urinal wanted to run, Warren took the urinal, he smashed it with a hammer He drove it in, he drove it home, he drove it deep in the urinal The urinal cracked, Warren fell on his knees, started crashing the urinal with his hammer, started crashing the urinal with his hammer, started laughing hysterically When suddenly! Warren! Gets the feeling! He’s being surrounded by… coppers, coppers, coppers, coppers coming in in all directions! blue shining silver studs with their nose in flames… He saw! coppers, coppers, coppers, coppers, coppers, coppers…" Now, who knows what I am talking about? Pisser it all. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/14 "2006-01-07T06:49:08Z")
> [@Taters](#): > > As I was scrolling down the forum I first read this as “Urinal Damaged in Penis”… Yeah, and by a guy named Dumpchamp. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urinal-damaged-in-paris/338786/15 "2006-01-07T16:18:30Z")
Go back and look at the picture in the link. Notice anything unusual? When I saw it, I looked at the round hole facing the camera. WTF? You piss in it and all the piss pours out onto the front of your pants? 😕 Finally it dawned on me. The picture is taken from a very strange angle. The urnial is laying flat on the ground. The hole is in the top of the urnial, not the front. :smack: