A painting worth almost Rs 7.5 crore has been defaced after a 'bored' security guard drew eyes on faceless figures depicted in the artwork at a Russian gallery.
On his first day on the job, the 60-year-0ld security guard (whose identity has not been revealed) had drawn two pairs of eyes with a ballpoint pen onto artist Anna Leporskaya's Three Figures (1932–1934) painting during an abstract art exhibition at the Yeltsin Center in the city of Yekaterinburg, western Russia, reported the Daily Mail.
The "additions" to the painting was spotted by visitors at the Yeltsin Center, reported the Art Newspaper.
The Yeltsin Center said in a statement that the man was employed by a private security company. "We inform you that during the investigation, the person who painted the eyes on the figures in the painting by Anna Leporskaya was identified - this is an employee of a private security organization that carries out security activities of the Yeltsin Center," it stated.
The man has since been fired.
The painting was then sent to the Moscow gallery the next day and is being restored. The the damage, according to the restoration expert at State Tretyakov Gallery, can be eliminated without any long-term damage to the artwork.
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The damage to the painting and cost of restoration has been estimated at Rs 2.5 lakh and it will be paid by the company where the security guard worked.
It is unclear how much the painting is worth, but it was insured with the Alfa insurance company for Rs 7.5 crore.
The police have now opened an investigation for vandalism, with comes with a fine of about Rs 40,000 and a one-year correctional labour sentence.
Artist Leporskaya, who was born in 1900 and died in 1982, was a student of the renowned, avant-garde Russian artist Kazimir Malevich. 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.
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