Hans-Joachim Bohlmann

Hans-Joachim Bohlmann (20 September 1937 – 19 January 2009) was a German serial vandal who primarily targeted artworks at public exhibitions.

On 16 August 1977, he poured sulfuric acid on several artworks including portraits of Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Lower Saxony State Museum of Hanover.

Bohlmann's activity was not restricted to paintings and museums; he ignited an altar in Lübeck and sprayed hundreds of tombstones with swastikas at night in Hamburg.

He was then banned from buying acid and instead committed arson at a construction site near Hamburg inflicting damage estimated at 65,000 euros.

A part of his pension was seized for the damage done to Ruben's Archduke Albrecht, and in the autumn of 1987 he went for treatment in the psychiatric department of the Hospital Hamburg-Eilbek.

On 20 April 1988, he took a leave from the hospital and the next day splashed acid on three paintings by Albrecht Dürer in Munich's Alte Pinakothek, namely Lamentation for Christ, Paumgartner Altar and Mater Dolarosa[6] inflicting damage estimated at 35 million euros.

In 1989 he was convicted by the Munich District Court to a two-year imprisonment, concurrent with treatment as long as necessary in a psychiatric hospital, and in March 1990 transferred to the clinic in Hamburg-Ochsenzoll.

Bohlmann escaped from the facility in January 1998 and after being at large for two days he was found at a subway station, possibly on the way back to the hospital.