Barnett Newman's "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III" was slashed in Amsterdam in 1986; a $400,000 restoration was judged to have destroyed it

In 1986 a visitor slashed Newman's "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III" at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The museum describes the man as distressed by abstract art. The widow of the artist recommended Daniel Goldreyer, a Long Island conservator who had restored Newman paintings. He finished the work in 1991 for up to $400,000. Museum experts said it no longer looked like the original. Reports completed in 1992 concluded that the canvas had been painted over rather than retouched. One report, cited by the Volkskrant, said the original was "destroyed for ever." Goldreyer threatened the city with a large damages claim, which was settled about five years later. Amsterdam kept the reports secret until a court ordered their release in 2013. The same man later slashed Newman's "Cathedra" with a box cutter, about nine years after 1986^†. The Stedelijk showed "Who's Afraid" again in a small Newman retrospective in April 2014.