Russian painting vandalized by 'bored' gallery guard who drew eyes on it
A valuable avant garde painting has been vandalised by a “bored” security guard who drew eyes on faceless figures in the artwork on his first day working in a Russian gallery. Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures was painted between 1932 and 1934, and had been insured for 75m roubles (A$1.4m, £740,000). It was on display as part of an abstract art exhibition at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center in Ekaterinburg when the guard drew eyes on it using a ballpoint pen.
Alexander Drozdov, the executive director of the Yeltsin Center, did not identify the security guard in a statement, but said he worked for a private security company and had been fired. The exhibition’s curator, Anna Reshetkina, said the painting was vandalised “with a Yeltsin Center-branded pen”.
“His motives are still unknown but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity,” she said.
Restoration experts at the Tretyakov have estimated that the restoration work would cost 250,000 roubles (A$4,600).
The Yeltsin Center reported the damage to police on 20 December, but
Ekaterinburg’s ministry of internal affairs initially declined to press charges as the damage was deemed “insignificant”. Russian media reported that the ministry of culture later complained to the prosecutor general’s office about the lack of action, and last week police announced that they had opened an investigation. The suspect faces a fine and up to three months in prison.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/feb/10/russian-painting-vandalised-by-bored-gallery-guard-who-drew-eyes-on-it
Detail from Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures, after it was defaced at the Yeltsin Centre.
Photograph: The Art Newspaper Russia/Newslfash/Australscope
= new reply since forum marked as read
