On 7 December 2021, two visitors to the exhibition The World as Non-Representational. The Birth of a New Art at the Yeltsin Center's Art Gallery in Yekaterinburg commented that the painting Three Figures (1932-34) by Russian avant-garde artist and Malevich student Anna Leporskaya (1900-1982) did not look as it should. Two of the three faces, which were originally blank, now had eyes that seemed to be drawn on by ballpoint pen. The two discoverers reported this to museum staff and the painting was removed from the exhibition.
Three Figures (1932-34) was loaned to the Yeltsin Center by the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow for the duration of the exhibition. A restorer from the gallery was immediately called in and took the painting to Moscow to repair the damage. Experts there determined that there would be no permanent damage after the repair and the insurance company, which had insured the painting for 74.9 million rubles (about $990,000), said the cost of repair would be 250,000 rubles (approx. $3,300).
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As reported by The Art Newspaper Russia on 13 January, the Yeltsin Center reported the incident to the Yekaterinburg police on 20 December, but they decided not to press charges due to the minor damage. The Yeltsin Center itself commented on this for the first time on 14 January in a press release and stated that it had so far refrained from making an announcement due to the ongoing investigations.
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In the meantime, the Ministry of Culture has filed a complaint regarding the lack of criminal prosecution, so that proceedings have now been initiated against the perpetrator for "destruction of or damage to cultural assets".
The identity of the perpetrator was determined using the video material from the surveillance cameras, which the Yeltsin Center has now made available to the law enforcement authorities. As the centre announced on social media, it was a private security guard who was hired to protect the integrity of the exhibits.
Why the security guard, who discovered his questionable artistic streak on his first day at the security company, did what he did is currently unknown and may be clarified in the course of further investigations.
