Laszlo Toth

On 21 May 1972, Michelangelo's Pietà statue, located in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, was attacked by Laszlo Toth, a Hungarian geologist who believed he was Jesus Christ. With fifteen blows, he removed Mary's arm at the elbow, knocked off a chunk of her nose, and chipped one of her eyelids. Another man, firefighter Marco Ottaggio, grabbed Toth by the hair to keep him out of reach.

Culprit

Toth was born on 1 July 1938 in Pilisvörösvár, Hungary, to a Catholic family. After graduating with a degree in geology, he moved to Australia in 1965. As his English was poor and his geology diploma was not recognised, he initially worked at a soap factory. In June 1971, he moved to Rome, Italy, knowing no Italian, intending to become recognised as Christ. He sent letters to Pope Paul VI and unsuccessfully attempted to meet him. Toth was stateless at the time of the attack on the statue. attacked the statue. Following his arrest, Toth repeated his claim that he was Christ and said that God had compelled him to destroy the statue because Christ, being eternal, could not have a mother. In addition, Toth claimed to be Michelangelo. Toth was kept in custody and on 28 January 1973, a magistrate court ordered a minimum of two years confinement at a mental hospital. Upon his return to Australia, psychiatrists there did not consider him dangerous, and he has not been heard of since.

Aftermath After some debate, it was decided to perform as close to an "invisible" restoration as possible. Restorers took five months to identify over 100 fragments and reattached them using glue along with powder from Carrara marble ). One piece of the statue had been taken by an American tourist during Toth's arrest, but it was voluntarily sent back for the restoration a few months later.

In popular culture Toth is the eponymous inspiration for books of letters by Don Novello. Comic book artist Steve Ditko used Toth's actions as the central metaphor in his 1992 examination of issues concerning creation and destruction, Lazlo's Hammer (corrected to "Laszlo's Hammer" in subsequent reprints and revisions).