A French Appeal Court ruled Friday that a man who attacked Marcel Duchamp's famed porcelain urinal with a hammer does not have to pay $260,000 US in damages.

Pierre Pinoncelli, 78, chipped at Duchamp's Fountain with a hammer during a January 2006 exhibition of the Dada movement at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

At the time, Pinoncelli said his actions were not vandalism but a "wink" at the early 20th-century Dada art movement.

Last year, a lower court convicted Pinoncelli. The court gave him a three-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay the Paris museum $18,600 US for repairs and another $260,000 US to cover depreciation of the artwork, valued at $3.6 million US.

Friday's Appeal Court decision upheld the suspended sentence and the fine for repairs. However, it also said Pinoncelli did not have to pay the Pompidou for any loss of value, because the museum doesn't own the work.

Pinoncelli previously urinated on Fountain during a 1993 exhibition in Nimes in southern France.

Fountain is one of Duchamp's most famous works, first unveiled at a New York exhibit in 1917. The Dada pioneer used everyday materials and found objects in his artwork to question the nature of art and culture. He also emphasized the creative process and a role for the spectator.

In December 2004, a panel of 500 significant people in the British art scene voted Fountain the most influential artwork of the 20th century. Duchamp, who became a U.S. citizen in the 1950s, died in 1968.

I just wonder what on earth the man was thinking doing this? Fair enough if he didn't like it don't go see it. But I think it was extremly selfish to basically destroy a piece which gives many people a great deal of pleasure.
Personally I have no interest in this piece of work but wouldn't try to damage it, can you imagine if every piece of work in the world was attacked by someone that didn't like it. There would be nothing left to appreciate.
Two offences as well, I suppose it is only a matter of time before the third occurs!