vandalism
Security guard with bored googly eyes on abstract painting
At first glance, the eyes are hardly noticeable.
© Handout / PR
Anna Leporskaya’s painting “Three Figures” works because the heads have no eyes and no facial features. A Russian security guard added a pen to the picture, which cost 900,000 euros. The police initially found the squiggles half as wild.
That was his first day at work: an unknown security guard started at a gallery in Yekaterinburg, the city is in the Urals. Apparently there wasn’t much going on and the man was terribly bored. So he took a pen and gave the faceless figures in a famous painting by Anna Leporskaya little googly eyes.
Anna Leporskaya’s painting “Three Figures” (1932-1934) was on loan in the city last December. She is one of the master students of Kazimir Malevich, one of the fathers of abstract art. His painting “The Black Square on a White Background” from 1915 is considered a milestone in modern painting. Painting was pioneering in Russia well into the 1930s, until Stalin forcibly decreed a realistic style in the manner of Old Masters.
Mental disorder
Curator Anna Reshetkina said the painting was vandalized by a 60-year-old security guard on his first day on the job. “The security guard drew the eyes with a Yeltsin Center’s house-brand pen,” she said.
“His motives are still unknown, but the administration believes it is some form of mental disorder.”
The man, who remains anonymous, is said to have not come to work for several days after the incident and was also not available by phone, according to Reshetkina.
Ignorant police
Not only was the security guard ignorant, the police were no more understanding either. The officials found the three squiggles to be irrelevant and initially did not want to pursue the matter further. Only a call from Moscow started the investigation. Eventually the security guard was arrested. Police said the man was “quite aggressive and made it clear he didn’t like the investigation.”
If convicted, he faces a hefty fine or three months in prison. The painting was not damaged beyond repair. The damage shouldn’t go deep thanks to the man’s superficial stroke. The insurance company estimates the image can be restored for around £2,500.
Source: Artnewspaper.ru