A security guard in his 60s who worked at a Russian art museum was fired after being found out for graffiti on an expensive painting on his first day of work. 



According to foreign media such as the British BBC on the 10th local time, two visitors who visited the Yekaterinburg Yeltsin Center Museum of Art in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk, Russia on December 7 last year were looking at a work called 'Three Figures'. I had a feeling that something was strange. 



This work was painted by the Russian painter Anna Reforskaya for two years from 1932, depicting three faceless faces side by side.

However, when visitors discovered the work, small eyes were drawn with a ballpoint pen on the first and third faces. 




Visitors immediately informed the museum of this fact.

As a result of the investigation, it was revealed that a 60-year-old security guard A, dispatched by a private security company, was the culprit for damaging the painting. 



It was confirmed that Mr. A did this on the first day he went to work at the art museum.

According to the museum, Mr. A felt bored while working, so it was reported that he scribbled on the picture with a pen. 



The exact price of the painting that Mr. A touched was not priced, but it is known that the insurance included in the work alone is 75 million rubles (about 1.2 billion won).

The work was returned to its original owner, the Tretyagov State Museum of Art in Moscow, for restoration the day after the incident. 



An official from the Tretyagov Museum told TAN Russia, "Fortunately, the painting was not damaged because the pen was not pressed hard. The restoration work is expected to cost 250,000 rubles (about 4 million won)." 



Mr. A was fired from the security company he worked for and is currently under investigation by the police.

If he is found guilty, he could face a fine and up to three months in prison.  



Meanwhile, the Yeltsin Center installed protective screens on other artworks on display after the security guard graffiti incident.  



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(Photo='NowThis' Twitter, Tretyagov Museum website)