This museum guard was ‘bored’ and doodled on a P51 million painting

There are times when you feel a little under the weather when you’re at work. But this particular museum guard went a little too overboard when he was “bored” during his first day on the job. He was so bored he doodled eyes on a faceless (and expensive) Soviet-era painting.

Two visitors went to the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg back in December. When they reached Anna Leporskaya’s artwork Three Figures, they spotted eyes drawn in a ballpoint pen. The painting which shows a trio of featureless heads was insured for 75 million roubles, or roughly Php. 51,331,152.

The museum’s executive director Alexander Drozdov said in a statement the unnamed security guard was employed by a private security organization. He explained that the guard used one of Yeltsin Center’s own branded pens, which penetrated a layer of the paint.

Drozdov added, ‘His motives are still unknown but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity.’

According to The Art Newspaper, the pen-made vandal wasn’t created with strong pressure, which means the strokes as a whole weren’t ruined. The left figure on the painting also had “a small crumble of the paint layer up to the underlying layer on the face.”

The artwork’s damage was first reported to authorities on December 30, but a criminal investigation didn’t push through because the vandalism was deemed “insignificant”. The ministry of culture then complained to the prosecutor general’s office about the decision.

In February 2020, the police finally opened an investigation. If the suspected security guard will be guilty of the crime, he could face a fine and spend three months behind bars.

The Three Figures artwork was returned to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, which had lent the painting to the Yeltsin gallery. It went through restoration a day after the vandalism’s discovery. The restoration is estimated to be priced at 250,000 roubles (approx. Php. 171,077).

Banner: Three Figures by Anna Leporskaya / Tretyakov Gallery

The post <b> This museum guard was ‘bored’ and doodled on a P51 million painting </b> appeared first on WE THE PVBLIC.

Source: we the pvblic