February 20, 2020

 

A Russian art gallery says one of its security guards has vandalised an avant-garde painting on loan from the country's top art repository by drawing eyes on the picture's deliberately featureless faces. The Yeltsin Center in Ekaterinburg said the vandalism of the painting Three Figures, by Anna Leporskaya, occurred on December 7.

With the pen, the 60-year-old added eyes to Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures on his first day at the gig. The incident has spawned debate across social media, but the vandalism itself seems to be less complex than the art world wants it to be. The guard, in an interview with a Russian newspaper, said he was mostly just confused.

 

Leporskaya painted Three Figures between 1932 and 1934, and before the vandalism it was insured for $1.4 million. The painting has since been returned to the State Tretyakov for a quick restoration that is estimated to cost 250,000 roubles ($4,600). Meanwhile, protective screens were installed over the remaining artworks on display at the Yeltsin Center.

The Yeltsin Center said the painting had been sent for restoration to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, which owns it.