Visitors enjoying a £740,000 painting at the Yeltsin Center were in for a surprise when they noticed an extra ‘detail’ had been added to the artwork.
A pair of eyes were drawn with a pen on two of the three figures on Anna Leporskaya's 'Three Figures' (1932–1934) painting. It was later discovered that a security guard was the culprit of the vandalism. He claimed that he did it because he’d been so bored on his first day of the job. The unnamed man has been dismissed since.
Thankfully, the painting is salvageable. It has undergone swift restoration at the State Tretyakov Gallery. The reconstruction is reported to cost £2,470 (RUB 250,000). The private security company that housed the security guard is paying for the damage.
Images: The Art Newspaper