“Three figures” went to work out – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

Magistrate of the Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg Olga Zhernakova found Alexander Vasilyev, a security guard at the Yeltsin Center art gallery, guilty of vandalism. He was assigned 180 hours of compulsory work, as well as compulsory treatment by a psychiatrist for drawing eyes on two figures in the painting “Three Figures” by Malevich’s student Anna Leporskaya. The defense intends to challenge this decision.

A painting from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery “Three Figures” of 1932-1934 by the artist Anna Leporskaya was shown in November 2021 at the art gallery of the Yeltsin Center at the exhibition “The World as Non-Objectivity. The birth of a new art. In total, the exhibition featured 84 works by such artists as Kazimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Pavel Filonov, Robert Falk, Lev Yudin. The painting “Three Figures” represents three abstract figures. Its cost was estimated at 75 million rubles.

In December, it was discovered that two side figures in Anna Leporskaya’s painting had “eyes” 0.5-0.6 mm in size, drawn with a black pen. The canvas was taken back to the Tretyakov Gallery, where they found out that the ink had penetrated into the paint layer, since the canvas was not covered with a protective varnish. The cost of restoration work was estimated at 250 thousand rubles.

Two weeks after the incident, the leadership of the Yeltsin Center contacted the police. However, in the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Yekaterinburg counted the damage caused to the painting was insignificant and refused to open a criminal case. Then the Ministry of Culture of Russia sent a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to cancel the refusal to initiate a case, as well as to reclassify the case from Art. 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (deliberate destruction or damage to property) at Art. 243 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (destruction or damage to cultural heritage sites). In February, the Yekaterinburg police opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (vandalism).

On video cameras, it was possible to establish that the 63-year-old security guard of the Yeltsin Center gallery, Alexander Vasiliev, spoiled the canvas. While on duty, he went up to the picture and, looking around, took out a black pen from his pocket, with which he added eyes to the figures. After that, the guard disappeared and did not get in touch for several days.

The case was referred to a justice of the peace in the Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg. At the court session on August 19, Alexander Vasilyev acknowledgedbut said he did nothing wrong. After the incident, he was fired and still cannot find a job. “They don’t take me anywhere: it starts that the eyes are painted. What for? What wrong have I done? I didn’t do anything wrong. I have a splinter in my head. I ended the war! – he said.

During the court hearings, it turned out that Alexander Vasiliev, a participant in the first Chechen war, was awarded the medal “For Courage”. He unofficially worked for Alfa-E LLC, a company providing security services to the Yeltsin Center. On December 7, he was asked to replace one of the guards. He was not instructed. That day, the visitors were very noisy, causing Vasiliev’s head to ache.

At the court session, a video recording of the episode was shown when Alexander Vasiliev painted eyes in the picture. Previously, he explained that to add eyes to his supposedly asked some teenagers.

“If only I knew that these weren’t the work of those guys! That the paintings were brought from Moscow, and they cost so much! What have I done!” the guard repented. However, no teenagers were captured by the video camera.

The security guard’s lawyer Aleksey Bushmakov petitioned for the termination of the criminal case due to the fact that the damage caused in the amount of 250 thousand rubles. paid by the insurance company. But the prosecutor noted that Alexander Vasilyev gave the picture a disfigured appearance, showing that he “ignores morality and morality.” In addition, the Tretyakov Gallery notified the court that it refused to put up with Alexander Vasiliev. On this basis, the court did not grant the motion.

The state prosecutor requested 250 hours of compulsory work for Alexander Vasiliev. Lawyer Aleksey Bushmakov considered the requested punishment too harsh and insisted on a fine: “With his state of health, it will be difficult for him to carry out this punishment. In fact, it is not feasible. It’s too harsh and cruel for his age and state of health.” As a result, Alexander Vasiliev was assigned 180 hours of compulsory work, as well as compulsory treatment by a psychiatrist. The defense intends to challenge this decision.

Diana Sunagatullina, Yekaterinburg