February 15, 2022

Security Guard Doodles


Security Guard Doodles
Fancy girl, fancier paintings  Pexels, Una Laurencic.

A security guard was fired on his first day of work at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center in Yekaterinburg for defacing the Soviet-era painting, "Three Figures," by artist Anna Leporskaya. The painting features three faceless bodies alongside one another. The guard used a pen to doodle eyes onto the faces. Anna Reshetkina, the exhibition curator, states the damage was done with a pen from the Yeltsin center. 

Visitors of the center noticed the damage on December 7, 2021. The guard was fired and a criminal investigation began. The painting was removed and returned to the loaning institution, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

Ivan Petrov analyzed the painting for damages. Luckily, he said, the guard did not apply too much pressure with the pen, so the painting was not destroyed. But the Tretyakov estimates that restoration will cost approximately R250,000 ($3,345).

According to the Yeltsin Center, the guard's motives are unknown. A before and after look of the painting can be seen here

You Might Also Like

The Thaw Snaps
  • November 01, 2012

The Thaw Snaps

In December 1962, Nikita Khrushchev's Thaw was drawing to a close, only no one quite knew this yet. It would take a contrived showdown at a Moscow art exhibition to bring things to a head.
Russian Art Boom
  • September 01, 2008

Russian Art Boom

It may seem like the latest fad, yet the explosion of interest in Russian art has been 20 years in the making. And has far from peaked...
The Art of the Fall
  • January 14, 2022

The Art of the Fall

A St. Petersburg artist draws attention to the city's ice and snow problem.
Ageless Youth
  • October 04, 2021

Ageless Youth

The new head of Yekaterinburg's youth commission is perhaps a little older than one might expect.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955