A Russian Painting was Vandalized by Bored Museum Security Guard

Sometimes we are not in the right mindset and end up doing some crazy things.

In this slogging thread, our random channel had the opportunity to discuss the latest news about vandalism in an art gallery.

We discussed what were some foolish things we had done and pondered: what if someone "bored" out of their mind decided to vandalize your work?

This Slogging thread by Sara Pinto, Abeer, Mónica Freitas, Limarc Ambalina and Jack Boreham occurred in slogging's official #random channel, and has been edited for readability.

What if someone "bored" out of their mind decided to vandalize your work?

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/feb/10/russian-painting-vandalised-by-bored-gallery-guard-who-drew-eyes-on-it

It was the first day on the job, and this security guard at a gallery decided it was a good idea to draw on Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures which was painted between 1932 and 1934, and had been insured for 75m roubles.

Fortunately, the damage is repairable, but it would cost around 250,000 roubles.

"This is not the first time a painting has been vandalized in Russia: in 2019 a man was sentenced to two and half years in prison after attacking a painting of Ivan the Terrible in the Tretyakov, tearing it with a pole from the barrier protecting the work. The same work was also attacked in 1913 by a mentally ill man who slashed it with a knife three times."

I cannot help but find this a little funny, given that the piece displayed figures with no face, and the guard decided to go with some eyes. However, it's someone's work, and in this case, a valuable piece as well. I have to ask, what's your take on this?

Limarc Ambalina Mónica Freitas Jack Boreham Abeer

Sara Pinto This is hilarious but man, do I feel bad for the artist. That’s one of the dumbest reasons to have your painting vandalized. I suspect his “lapse in sanity” was probably him being drunk or under the influence on the job and his employer trying to manage their PR after the incident

The most bizarre part is that it was his first day, and he just screwed up in the worst possible way. I'm glad that they can repair the damage of this dumb action. What's the most foolish thing you did at work? Abeer

Sara Pinto I'm not going to lie. It's a bit funny how he went about it 😂 yet, it's obviously not right... It's a great piece of art, after all

Sounds like something that would happen in a sitcom 😄

"The vandalism was first noticed on 7 December by two visitors who raised the alarm with a gallery employee. The painting was removed from the exhibition and returned to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, which had loaned the painting."

Imagine being the people who noticed

If it was good art, I would accept it 😂

Mónica Freitas Exactly! It's difficult not to find it funny, but it's still pretty bad of him to have done it. Have you ever done something silly on your job just because you were bored?

Limarc Ambalina If it was me and I didn't know the piece previously, I would just think it was something more abstract haha. Like the artist decided to go with a pen to make a statement or something

Jack Boreham That sounded like you are the type of guy who would buy a piece of art and then shape it to your liking just like this security guard 😂

Sara Pinto, silly? Does my thesis count? 😂

Mónica Freitas, no 😂 It has to be something in the lines of this security guard haha

Sara Pinto then no... I'm far too responsible 😅

Sara Pinto have you?

Sara Pinto I think the most foolish thing I did when I was bored at work was a long long time ago when I worked at a McDonalds. My friend I haven’t seen in a long time came by the drive-through. There was no one around and I haven’t seen him in so long so we ended up catching up at the drive-through. 😂 As you can imagine, we lost track of time and before we knew it, there was a line of cars waiting behind him in the drive-through honking for him to take his food and go! 💀

Mónica Freitas, I don't have many foolish work stories, but I do have some from college. My friends and I have a history of entering places we are not supposed to be and leaving the places where we have to be. So, one time, we decided to leave our class, and enter a classroom that wasn't ours. We discovered that we were in a design class, so we decided to stay and draw for giggles. Surprise, surprise, the teacher caught us. We tried to pull the Erasmus student card, it would be more normal that way that the teacher didn't recognize us. it didn't work, we were "yelled" a little and left running haha