- published: 29 Sep 2012
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Laszlo Toth (Tóth László in Hungarian) (born 1940), is a Hungarian-born Australian geologist. He achieved worldwide notoriety when he vandalised Michelangelo's Pietà statue on 21 May 1972. Toth was not charged with any criminal offence after the incident. He was hospitalised in Italy for two years. On his release, he was immediately deported to Australia, where he apparently still resides.
Little is known of Toth's early life, apart from his birth in Hungary in 1940.
Toth, wielding a geologist's hammer and shouting, "I am Jesus Christ — risen from the dead", attacked the statue, with fifteen blows removed Mary's arm at the elbow, knocked off a chunk of her nose, and chipped one of her eyelids. Toth was subdued by bystanders, including American sculptor Bob Cassilly, who was the first person to pull him away from The Pietà. He was never charged with the crime, in view of his apparent insanity. On 29 January 1973, he was committed to an Italian psychiatric hospital. He was released on 9 February 1975, and was immediately deported to Australia where he had studied prior to the attack; Australian authorities did not detain him. He resides in a nursing home in Strathfield, NSW, Australia.[citation needed]