By Tim Binnall
A Russian man's new job as a security guard at an art museum took a bizarre turn when, on his first day at work, he grew bored and decided to draw eyes on a $1 million painting! The shocking act of vandalism was reportedly first noticed back in early December when a pair of patrons visiting the Yeltsin Center in the city of Yekaterinburg noticed something amiss with artist Anna Leporskaya's piece 'Three Figures.' When museum officials were alerted to the issue, they were aghast to discover that someone had used a ballpoint pen to add eyes to two of the heads in the nearly century-old painting (as seen in the video above).
Following an investigation by the museum, it came to light this week that that the culprit was, in fact, a security guard who had only started working at the Yeltsin Center that day and is said to have gotten bored while on the job. Decrying the "hooliganism," exhibition organizer Anna Reshetkina observed that "it was quite easy for him to do this, since he, in fact, was responsible for the safety of the paintings." Upon being discovered in its vandalized state, the piece was removed from the museum and sent to an art restoration expert who determined that the damage was fairly minimal and would likely only cost around $3,300 to fix.
While the unnamed man has understandably been fired from his job as a security guard at the museum, that may wind up being the least of his troubles. That's because, after initially declining to press charges, Russian authorities have now opted to open a criminal investigation into the incident. Should the now-former guard be convicted of vandalizing the painting, he could face a fine of approximately $400 and a one year "correctional labor sentence," which sounds like a rather ominous punishment for the ill-advised doodling.