A French woman went on trial Tuesday accused of vandalizing a €2 million artwork by US artist Cy Twombly by planting a lipstick-red kiss on its pure white canvas.

The trial comes days after a drunken gang broke into the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and punched a hole in a painting by the French Impressionist Claude Monet, sparking a debate about security in French museums.

Cambodian-born Rindy Sam, 30, was arrested in July after reaching out to smack a crimson kiss on the Twombly painting during a show dedicated to the U.S. painter in the southern French city of Avignon.

The young woman, herself an artist, says she was overcome by the work's power and issued a statement distancing herself from Saturday's vandalism. "On the one hand you have a revoltingly bestial act of cruelty, on the other a pure, intense act of love. Rindy's gesture was an artistic act provoked by the power of art," her statement said.

But Agnes Tricoire, lawyer for the plaintiffs, argued that the kiss was "as aggressive as a punch," causing damage that was just as hard to restore. "I do not share the same vision of love. For me love requires the consent of both sides," she said. "I expect compensation for my clients, the artist Cy Twombly whose work has been altered, the Lambert collection whose exhbition was ruined by this business and Mr Lambert, owner of the work vandalised by Miss Rindy Sam."

The untitled work, roughly nine feet by six, is valued $2.8 million.