A gallery security guard who used a biro to draw eyes on a famous Russian painting has blamed teenage girls for ‘egging him on.’
The man, who defaced Anna Leporskaya’s faceless ‘Three Figures’ – worth £750,000 – has been named as army veteran Alexander Vasilyev.
He was on his first day in the job at The Yeltsin Centre when he damaged the artwork, which was on loan to the Yekaterinburg-based gallery from Moscow.
Speaking for the first time since news of the incident made headlines worldwide, Mr Vasilyev, 63, told website E1.ru he was ‘confused’ and ‘depressed’ by the art.
‘To be honest, I didn’t really like these pictures [at the exhibition],’ he said.
‘They left a difficult impression. I tried to pass by without looking [at them].
‘I watched how people reacted, and then I saw teenagers, 16 or 17, standing and discussing why there are no eyes, no mouth, and no beauty.
‘There were girls in the group, and they asked me: “Draw on the eyes, you work here”.’
Mr Vasilyev, who faces a fine or a prison term for ‘vandalism’, said the girls convinced him that it was their drawing and they wanted him to add the eyes.
He said he regretted being a ‘fool’ when he realised how much the painting was worth.
The guard is a former-senior lieutenant who served in the Chechen War and suffered gunshot wounds in 1995 when he was one of only four in his 36-strong unit to survive. He was given a medal for his bravery.
Mr Vasilyev’s wife, Yulia, blamed his war-wounds for making him ‘naive like a child’.
The couple are now urging people to leave them alone so they can get on with their lives.
Experts have said the ink from the pen ‘slightly penetrated the paint layer’ of the artwork but the damage is not irreversible.
The picture was removed from the exhibition and returned to the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
It has now been renovated at a cost equivalent to £2,500.
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