By Daily Mail Reporter

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An incredible video, posted on YouTube, captures the moment a daring vandal defaced Pablo Picasso's 1929 artwork 'Woman in a Red Armchair' as it hung on a Texas gallery wall.

The iPhone footage, taken by a stunned museum goer on Wednesday, shows a young man walk up to the famous painting in the Menil Collection, Houston, and use a stencil to spray-paint a bull in its centre before fleeing the scene.

Underneath the bull, which is painted in gold, the graffiti artist sprayed the word 'Conquista' which means 'Conquest' or 'Conquer' in Spanish.

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Graffiti: The expensive painting, pictured, was spray painted with a bull and the word 'Conquista'

Graffiti: The expensive painting, pictured, was spray painted with a bull and the word 'Conquista'

Houston police are using the footage as well as surveillance video from the gallery in their hunt for the culprit, who they believe to be Hispanic and aged between 19 and 20.

No one has been charged at this stage.

'Our burglary and theft division is actively working on this,' Houston police spokesman Kefe Smith said. 'It is a very active investigation but no one has been charged at this time.'

Caught: The vandal, pictured, walked up to the painting and spray painted it before fleeing the gallery

Caught: The vandal, pictured, walked up to the painting and spray painted it before fleeing the gallery

According to KPRC News, the man who caught the act on tape said he followed the vandal out of the gallery and quizzed him as to why he desecrated the artwork.

Responding, he identified himself as an up and coming Mexican-American artist looking to honour Picasso's work.

'I was texting someone on my phone and as soon as I saw him walking towards the Picasso I pressed the record button on my camera app,' the man, who did not want to be named, told the station.

'It only took one second, he spray painted it then walked off.'

Fleeing: The culprit, pictured, bolted after desecrating the artwork

Fleeing: The culprit, pictured, bolted after desecrating the artwork

The museum rushed the painting to its on-site conservation lab where staff are still working to restore it to its former glory.

'The prognosis is good', said spokesman Gretchen Sammons, who added that the museum had never seen an incident like this before.

'This is the first time anything like this is has happened,' Ms Sammons told MailOnline.

'The incident was caught on tape by a museum visitor. The gallery's surveillance footage also caught it and police are using that.

Before: The 1929 painting, pictured here before being defaced, is one of nine Picasso's owned by the gallery

Before: The 1929 painting, pictured here before being defaced, is one of nine Picasso's owned by the gallery

'The artwork is currently with the museum's onsite conservation lab. The prognosis is good. But we have no idea when it will be back on display. It's an active investigation with the Houston police.'

The 1929 painting is one of nine Picasso's owned by the Menil Collection. The museum was unable to estimate the painting's value.

The founders bought it in 1956 and it has been on display on and off since 1987 and occasionally loaned out to other museums.

The Menil also owns 14 drawings, a terra-cotta sculpture and more than 100 prints by Picasso.


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The police won't have to look far .... Young Mexican-American artist URIEL LANDEROS, paints a stencil of a bullfighter killing a bull over an original 1929 Picasso painting in Houston TX on the YouTube video ... :)

Probably improves it, I'd leave it where it is.

why did he spray a great big arrow on the painting?

Banksy's running out of ideas!

why would anybody do such a thing? Hooligan who was never taught proper behavior nor to value Art.

Picasso would have laughed at this!

The stencil at least makes it interesting. Picasso's work as a child was brilliant - but as an adult, he painted like a petulant child. Emperor's Clothes if you ask me. Very over-rated - like Yoko Ono today.

Priceless meaning valueless.

Thank you DM for the warning about the offensive language in the video.

DM - you appear to have missed the point - there is also a bullfighter in the stencil. Surely this was protest over Spain's national scandal of a passtime - bullfighting. And as for Picasso - totally overrrated - the Damien Hirst of his day. I doubt if most gallery visitors would have noticed the change. Incidentally, why did the iPhoner just stand there and watch?

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