More bad news from Spain.  The fabulous mosaic lizard/dragon/salamander at the entrance to the Parc Guell was vandalised on Tuesday evening this week. The damage was apparently done by 3 people, using an iron bar. One suspect has been arrested. More details from el Periodico (in Spanish) showing damage to the head…

The last time the sculpture was assaulted like this was probably when it was made. Gaudi reportedly kicked it to deform the metal armature into the shape he wanted…

The Guardian reports today that 52 people have been arrested in a series of raids by Spanish police in connection with archeological theft. Mosaics were among 300, 000 items that theives had stolen from sites throught Andalucia in southern Spain. Roman remains and also artefacts from the Moorish occupation had been targetted by specialist criminals.

Sadly, this isn’t a new activity in Spain. In 1983 a mosaic of the god Bachuus was stolen from Italica, close to Seville.  Elsewhere, there have been notable thefts of mosaic treasures from the excavations at Zeugma in Turkey.

Couldn’t help noticing these patterns on a monkey puzzle tree and some flint walls…

This one is actually taken looking vertically up the wall of a church tower.

We’ve seen movies featured in mosaic (such as the Alfred Hitchcock mosaics) - now I’m noticing mosaics in films. In the 2004 film The Terminal, Tom Hanks’ character makes a large pique assiette within the confines of the airport terminal building of the title. Full marks for motivation! Here’s another flick with a prominent mosaic: this mosaic table with an Islamic design features in Broken Flowers. Bill Murray’s character spends much of the start of the film sitting at it, and, in this shot, a fateful pink envelope rests on it.

There must be plenty of other on-screen mosaics out there… for example, in “The Life of Brian”  rebels enter the Imperial palace via tunnels under the floor, emerging through an erotic mosaic…