Security guard ruins 900 000 € painting.

Photo by Steve Johnson from Pexels

Annas Leporskas 1932-1934.g. painting in the center of Yekaterinburg in Yekaterinburg suffered an attack. As it turned out, the guard drew his eyes to the painting with a pen. Police initially refused to prosecute after inspecting the scene. The drawn eyes were noticed by the visitors.

The painting was part of the exhibition ... Author: Lestets The security guard destroyed a painting worth almost 900,000 euros on the first day of work

The painting was part of the exhibition "The World as Bias. The Birth of New Art".

The "improvement" of the painting was noticed by the visitors on December 7. It was removed and taken back to the Tretyakov Gallery, which inspected the painting and estimated the cost of the restoration at around 250,000 rubles, or around 2,800 euros.

Interestingly, the management of the Yeltsin Center only turned to the police on December 20. In addition, although there were cameras in the hall, the management has refused to disclose who did it.

Equally surprising was the police's response, which refused to prosecute on December 20 after inspecting the scene. However, when the Ministry of Culture sent a complaint to the Russian General Prosecutor's Office in January, the Yekaterinburg police initiated a criminal case against the leadership on February 4. Initially, a criminal case was requested under an article on the destruction or damage of cultural objects, which would also provide for a higher penalty.

Although it was not initially ... Author: Lestets The guard destroys a painting worth almost 900,000 euros on the first day of work

Image from: www.theartnewspaper.ru

Although it was not initially specified who "improved" the painting, it was later revealed that it was a security guard, and he did so on his first day of work.

As the security guard explained, he did not particularly like the painting because it had "left a heavy impression". He has observed how visitors react to the painting and a 16-17-year-old youth company has judged why there are no eyes, no mouth, no beauty. There were girls in the company who also asked to draw their eyes because he was working here. He had asked if the painting was their work and the girls had approved it. He also drew eyes with the pen he gave.

After realizing that this was no child labor, he regretted what he had done and never damaged the painting. The company that asked him to draw his eyes on the surveillance cameras was not filmed.

As far as the case of vandalism was brought, he faces a fine of only 40,000 rubles or 450 euros.