{"id":248862,"date":"2026-01-17T02:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248862\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T02:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:40:07","slug":"man-smashes-sculptures-in-midday-attack-at-dallas-museum-of-biblical-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248862\/","title":{"rendered":"Man smashes sculptures in midday attack at Dallas Museum of Biblical Art"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">A man tried to break into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/place\/cGVnYXN1czpwbGFjZQ-MzcyMzkw-TXpjeU16a3c\/Museum-of-Biblical-Art\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/place\/cGVnYXN1czpwbGFjZQ-MzcyMzkw-TXpjeU16a3c\/Museum-of-Biblical-Art\/\">Dallas Museum of Biblical Art<\/a> this month, smashing several sculptures in a brazen midday attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/topic\/dallas-police\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/topic\/dallas-police\/\">Police<\/a> said the man, identified as 34-year-old Elvis Santos, damaged pieces outside the museum near North Park Center, then attempted to break in around 1 p.m. Jan. 5, a Monday, when the museum was closed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Santos was arrested and remains in the Dallas County Jail, jail records show, facing charges of felony criminal mischief and resisting arrest, a misdemeanor. Bond is set at $11,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">A motive was not immediately clear, nor was a cost estimate for damages, although Dallas police said it exceeded $300,000. Museum officials did not respond to phone calls Friday seeking more information. <\/p>\n<p>Crime in The News<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__3beff secondaryRoman secondaryRoman-20 text-center text-gray-dark\">Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__8MgJa flex flex-wrap text-gray-dark secondaryRoman secondaryRoman-10 text-center justify-center\">By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0<a class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__lU9-l border-b border-gray-dark hover_border-0 focus_border-0 active_border-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/help\/terms-of-service\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-article-cta-social-module__lU9-l border-b border-gray-dark hover_border-0 focus_border-0 active_border-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Founded in 1966, the museum features rare maps and manuscripts, oil paintings, contemporary works and biblical archeology that seek to illuminate connections between Christian and Jewish faiths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Galleries include the National Center for Jewish Art, Museum of Holocaust Art, European Art Treasury, a sculpture garden and a working restoration lab. Notable artists with exhibited works include Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall and Michelangelo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">In 2005, the museum was gutted by a fire caused by faulty wiring. It <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/2010\/03\/31\/five-years-after-blaze-museum-of-biblical-art-to-reopen-on-good-friday-in-dallas\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/2010\/03\/31\/five-years-after-blaze-museum-of-biblical-art-to-reopen-on-good-friday-in-dallas\/\">reopened in 2010<\/a> with expanded gallery space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">This is not the first vandalism at a Dallas museum. In 2022, a 21-year-old man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/arts-entertainment\/visual-arts\/2022\/06\/02\/5-million-of-ancient-art-destroyed-at-dma-in-overnight-break-in\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/arts-entertainment\/visual-arts\/2022\/06\/02\/5-million-of-ancient-art-destroyed-at-dma-in-overnight-break-in\/\">broke into the city-owned Dallas Museum of Art<\/a> and smashed three ancient Greek artifacts and a contemporary Native American piece.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"dmnc_features-article-body-embeds-subject-tag-list-only-list-only-module__BZO7y link-blue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/opinion\/letters-to-the-editor\/2026\/01\/02\/letters-to-the-editor-british-flying-training-school-college-playoffs-guns-pets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Letters to the Editor \u2014 British Flying Training School, college playoffs, guns, pets<\/a><a class=\"dmnc_features-article-body-embeds-subject-tag-list-only-list-only-module__BZO7y link-blue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/arts-entertainment\/visual-arts\/2025\/12\/18\/fort-worth-kimbell-art-museum-named-texas-top-free-attraction\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fort Worth museum named Texas\u2019 top free attraction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man tried to break into the Dallas Museum of Biblical Art this month, smashing several sculptures in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[642,307,304,305,306,1115,18513,124875,308,93,35955,61,60,4540,124874],"class_list":{"0":"post-248862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-artists","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-artsdesign","13":"tag-crime","14":"tag-dallas","15":"tag-dallas-police","16":"tag-design","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-faith","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-museums","22":"tag-north-dallas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}