Culture

A Bored Security Guard Just Ruined A $1 Million Painting By Doodling Some Eyes On It

Doesn't look too bad, tbh.

by Jules LeFevre  10 February 2022
Anna Leporskaya’s three figures botched

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There is nothing more delightful in the entire world than botched art.

Sure, these are artistic masterpieces, very often priceless, and critically important to the history of culture. On the other hand, it’s exceedingly funny when someone accidentally makes a 500-year-old Spanish statue look like a shitty toy you’d buy from the local Dollarydoos store:

Impeccable.

Who could forget the infamous Ecce Homo? The 1930 painting of Jesus Christ was lovingly “restored” by a random lady and ended up looking as if a small child wanted to have a crack at replicating Goya. Then there was the case of the terrifying, bright orange baby Jesus head (Jesus, again?) that a well-meaning sculptor plopped on a statue in Canada.

Botched art is, simply, the best.

The latest entry into this gilded folder comes from Russia, where a bored security guard decided to draw two small pairs of eyes on Anna Leporskaya’s revered painting, Three Figures (1932-34). The painting is worth around AUD$1.4 million.

A+. Credit: The Art Newspaper Russia

According to The Art Newspaper Russia, the security guard was from a private security firm — it was reportedly their first day on the job — and has since been let go. The painting was on display at the Yeltsin Centre, located in the city of Yekaterinburg, in an exhibition titled ‘The World as Non-Objectivity. The Birth of a New Art’.

The painting was been rushed to restoration hospital after the incident took place in early December, and the Russian police have opened an investigation into the vandalism. The security guard could face a fine — and a “corrective labour” sentence for one year.

“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 organization that carries out security activities of the Yeltsin Center,” read a statement from the Yeltsin Center, released on Tuesday.

“Recall that on December 7, 2021, during the demonstration of the exhibition ‘The World as Non-Objectiveness. The Birth of a New Art’ in the Art Gallery of the Yeltsin Center suffered a painting by Anna Leporskaya ‘Three Figures’ (1932–1934) from the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery. The damage was done with a ballpoint pen.”