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The woman, a 35-year-old German from Munich, was visiting the Kunsthaus Bregenz exhibition "Roy Lichtenstein — Classic of the New" on Saturday afternoon when she slashed the painting Nude in Mirror, police spokesman Thomas Prodinger said. She made four cuts, each measuring almost 12 inches, Prodinger said.

The painting, owned by The Rush Family Collection in New York, had been insured for $6 million, he said. Lichtenstein died in 1997 at age 73.

A museum visitor and an employee held the woman until police arrived. She scratched a police officer in the face and bit another in the leg during questioning, Prodinger said.

The woman, whose identity was not released, had been examined by a court psychiatrist and faces a charge of causing grave property damage, a crime that carries a punishment of up to five years in prison, Prodinger said.

Sunday was the last day of the special exhibition, which opened in mid-June. It featured 41 works created from 1961 to 1995 by Lichtenstein, according to the museum's Web site. No one answered museum phones on Sunday, and phone and e-mail messages requesting comment were not immediately returned.

Bregenz, the capital of Austria's westernmost province, Vorarlberg, is about 430 miles west of Vienna.

By Susanna Loof, Associated Press Writer;
Copyright 2005 AP

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