The Toilet of Venus (also known as "The Rokeby Venus") is the only surviving example of a female nude by the Spanish painter Diego Vel?zquez (1599 ? 1660). In March 1914, the painting was the object of an act of vandalism caused by the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst. A suffragette slashed the canvas seven times with a meat cleaver in the attempt to "destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs. Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history." The canvas was later restored by Dr Helmut Ruhemann, the Consultant Restorer of The National Gallery in London.