A valuable modern art painting has been destroyed after a bored security guard on his first day of work drew eyes on the faceless figures depicted in it.
The painting, which was created by Anna Leporskaya, a student of Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich, was defaced at the Yeltsin Centre, which is located in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk Oblast region in west-central Russia.
The painting was allegedly defaced by a security guard from a private security company.
The incident reportedly took place on 7th December 2021, when the bored security guard on his first day on the job allegedly drew eyes with a ballpoint pen on the faces of two of the three figures depicted in the painting, but the identity of the suspect has only been reported now.
The employee, who has not been named, but who is said to be 60 years old, has reportedly already been fired.
The painting, called ‘Three Figures’ (1932-1934) from the Tretyakov Gallery collection, is currently being worked on by experts in a bid to restore it to its former glory. It was damaged during an exhibition called ‘The World as Non-Objectivity. The Birth of a New Art’.
After the incident, the police opened an investigation for vandalism, which comes with a RUB-40,000 (GBP-395) fine and a one-year correctional labour sentence.
Anna Leporskaya (1900-1982) was a student of the renowned, avant-garde Russian artist Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935). She also worked with other avant-garde artists, including Nikolai Suetin and Lev Yudin.
She is known primarily as a master of artistic porcelain. In addition to the Tretyakov Gallery, her works are widely represented in the collection of the Russian Museum.
The damage to the painting has been estimated at RUB 250,000 (GBP 2,470).
It is unclear how much the painting is worth, but it was insured with the Alfa insurance company for RUB 74.9 million (GBP 740,000).
It has been reported that the company is paying for the restoration.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: William McGee, Agency: Newsflash
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