A security guard has reportedly been fired after defacing a valuable modern art painting on his first day working at an art gallery.
The artwork was insured for 74.9 million rubles – the equivalent of £740,000 – and was on display at the Yeltsin Centre, in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk Oblast region in west-central Russia.
The damage is believed to have occurred on December 7, 2021, when the security guard is accused of drawing eyes with ballpoint pen on two of the three faceless figures in the painting.
But the employee, who worked for a private security company and is in his 60s, is said to have been sacked since his identity was discovered this week.
The Yeltsin Centre said in a statement released yesterday: ‘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 organisation that carries out security activities of the Yeltsin Centre.
‘The damage was done with a ballpoint pen.’
The painting was by Anna Leporskaya, a student of Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich.
The painting, called ‘Three Figures’ (1932-1934) from the Tretyakov Gallery collection, was damaged during an exhibition called ‘The World as Non-Objectivity. The Birth of a New Art.’
Experts are currently working on restoring the painting, which the security company is reportedly paying for.
The restoration expert at the State Tretyakov Gallery believes the damage can be fixed without any long-term damage to the artwork.
Local police opened an investigation for vandalism, which could come with a fine of 40,000 rubles (£395) and a one-year correctional labour sentence.
Anna Leporskaya (1900-1982) was a student of 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 mostly known primarily as a master of artistic porcelain.
As well as the State Tretyakov Gallery, many of her works are part of the collection featured in the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.
The damage to the painting has been estimated at 250,000 rubles (£2,470).
It is unclear exactly how much the painting is worth.
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