The police refused to open a criminal case on damage to the painting (Article 167 of the Criminal Code) by Malevich's student Anna Leporskaya in the Yeltsin Center after unknown people painted eyes on abstract figures on it. This is reported by The Art Newspaper Russia.
The painting Three Figures by Malevich's student Anna Leporskaya, painted in the first half of the 20th century, was presented at an exhibition at the Yeltsin Center. On December 7, visitors to the exhibition center discovered that unknown people had drawn eyes on the abstract figures in the painting with a ballpoint pen. After that, the work was removed from the exhibition ahead of schedule and returned to the Tretyakov Gallery, the restoration council of which estimated the damage at 250 thousand rubles.
“The ink penetrated the paint layer a little, since the titanium white used to paint the faces is not covered with author's varnish, as is often the case in abstract painting of that time. Fortunately, the vandal drew with a pen without strong pressure, and therefore the relief of the strokes as a whole was not disturbed. The left figure also had a small crumble of the paint layer down to the underlying layer on the face,» the publication specified.
On December 20, the Yeltsin Center directorate turned to the police. On the same day, the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city conducted an inspection and refused to initiate a criminal case due to the fact that the damage was considered insignificant.
“There are no signs of a crime under Art. 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, since the picture has not lost its properties”, & nbsp;
— stated in the decree of the department. In addition, according to The Art Newspaper Russia, the museum did not provide security officials with data from CCTV cameras on the day the canvas was damaged.
In January, the Ministry of Culture sent a complaint about the refusal to initiate proceedings to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to reclassify it under the article on damage to cultural heritage sites (Article 243 of the Criminal Code). The cost of restoring the painting will be borne by the insurance company, which previously insured it for 74.9 million rubles.