Ink-Thrower

Coincident with the opening of the Sargent exhibition in Manhattan, his mural in the Boston Public Library, entitled The Synagogue, was found to be splashed with ink. The painting, representing a woman on the steps of a ruined temple, her crown falling from her head, and clutching in her arms the tablets of Moses and a broken scepter, has been the subject of violent controversy between the civil authorities and prominent Jews who regard it as an insult to their faith. The identity of the ink-thrower is as yet unrevealed, but His aim was not equal to his ardor. The damage to the canvas is confined to some dozen splashes on less vital parts and will doubtless yield easily to the expert manipulation of a restorer.