Guard accused of drawing eyes on painting suffered a 'lapse of sanity'
Security guard accused of doodling eyes onto £740,000 painting’s faceless figures at Russian gallery ‘had suffered ‘a lapse of sanity’ during first day on the job’
- The guard is said to have drawn two pairs of eyes with a pen onto artist Anna Leporskaya’s ‘Three Figures’ (1932–1934) painting in a Russian exhibition
- The man has since been fired by the security agency he was employed by
- An investigation into vandalism has been opened, and he is facing forced labour
- Speaking today, the exhibition’s curator said he suffered a ‘lapse of sanity’
A security guard accused of doodling eyes onto a £740,000 painting’s faceless figures at a Russian art gallery suffered a lapse of sanity on his first day, the exhibition’s curator said today.
To the dismay of many, the guard is said to have drawn two pairs of eyes with a pen onto artist Anna Leporskaya’s ‘Three Figures’ (1932–1934) painting, while it was on display at an abstract art exhibition at the Yeltsin Center in the city of Yekaterinburg.
The man, believed to be in his 60s, has since been fired by the private security firm hired by the gallery and police have opened an investigation into the defacement.
Speaking to Russian website ura.ru, exhibition curator Anna Reshetkina said that it had been the guard’s first day on the job.
‘His motives are still unknown but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity,’ she told the website.
She explained that the guard used a Yeltsin Center branded ballpoint pen to draw the eyes onto the painting, and penetrated a layer of paint.
According to The Art Newspaper Russia, luckily the damage did not too deep as the suspect did not apply strong enough pressure to the canvas.
ORIGINAL: Artist Anna Leporskaya’s ‘Three Figures’ (1932–1934) painting
The painting was defaced by a security guard who added two pairs of eyes to the painting
Two visitors enjoying an art exhibition called ‘The World as Non-Objectivity. The Birth of a New Art’ at the Yeltsin Center spotted the extra details to two of the three figures on the 1930s painting on December 7 last year, reports the Art Newspaper.
The painting, which was on loan from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, was damaged by the security guard after he is said to have became bored.
The identity of the suspect has only been revealed now as a security guard by the Yeltsin Centre, although they did not name the worker.
The work was then sent to the Moscow gallery the next day and was inspected by an art restorer.
Police have now opened an investigation for vandalism, with comes with a £395 (74.9 million Russian Rubles) fine and a one-year correctional labour sentence.
The painting is being restored, the damage, according to the restoration expert at State Tretyakov Gallery, can be eliminated without any long-term damage to the artwork.
The damage to the painting and cost of restoration has been estimated at £2,470 (RUB 250,000). Protective screens have now been installed over the other paintings and works on display at the gallery.
It is unclear how much the painting is worth, but it was insured with the Alfa insurance company for £740,000 (RUB 74.9 million).
It has been reported that the company where the security guard worked is paying for the restoration.
The exhibition’s curator explained that the guard used a Yeltsin Center branded ballpoint pen to draw the eyes onto the painting, and penetrated a layer of paint
Two visitors enjoying an art exhibition called ‘The World as Non-Objectivity. The Birth of a New Art’ at the Yeltsin Center (pictured) spotted the extra details to two of the three figures on the 1930s painting on December 7 last year, reports the Art Newspaper
Artist Leporskaya, who was born in 1900 and died aged 82 in 1982, was a student of the renowned, avant-garde Russian artist Kazimir Malevich. 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.
The Yeltsin Center said in a statement released on Tuesday: ‘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.
‘Recall that on December 7, 2021, during the demonstration of the exhibition ‘The World as Non-Objectiveness. The Birth of a New Art’ in the Art Gallery of the Yeltsin Center suffered a painting by Anna Leporskaya ‘Three Figures’ (1932–1934) from the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery.
‘The damage was done with a ballpoint pen.’
The Center added: ‘The work was inspected by the restorer of the State Tretyakov Gallery the very next day and sent to Moscow. The painting is being restored, the damage, according to the expert, can be eliminated without consequences for the work of art.
‘The Yeltsin Center refrained from commenting on this situation in hot pursuit, as an internal investigation of the incident and interaction with law enforcement agencies were underway.’
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