Russian gallery guard charged for drawing eyes on US$1 million painting
- Two of the faceless figures in the Anna Leporskaya artwork were vandalised with a ballpoint pen
- It was the suspect’s first day on the job as an employee of a private security company
A Russian gallery has said one of its security guards was implicated in vandalising a 20th century avant-garde artwork, after he drew eyes onto figures of an abstract painting with a pen.
In December, a painting by Anna Leporskaya – a student of legendary artist Kazimir Malevich – was found defaced while on display at the Yeltsin Centre in Yekaterinburg.
The 1930s painting Three Figures – insured for 75 million roubles (US$1 million) – had eyes drawn onto two of its faceless figures using a ballpoint pen.
At a meeting on the incident on Monday, the Yeltsin Centre’s acting director Alexander Drozdov said they were drawn by “an employee of a private security company with which we have a contract”.
He added that the insurance company and the head of Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery that loaned the paining to the Yeltsin Centre were “immediately” informed of the situation.