A Brief Lapse In Sanity

Oh dear, it's happened again! Some thoughtless person has defaced an extremely valuable piece of art. This time in the Yeltsin Centre in Ekaterinburg. A security guard who was bored, doodled some eyes on the faceless people in Anna Leporskaya's "Three Figures" [painted around 1933] 

The painting is worth around £740K, and restoration costs will be in excess of £2.5K Fortunately this is covered by insurance.

There were some fascinating details in the various press reports about this incident [which happened in December]

• the picture was on loan from another gallery [oops!]
• the eyes were first noticed by a couple of tourists
• the culprit was a 60 year old guard, from a private company, in his first day in the job
• he was immediately sacked, and faces a £400 fine and a one-year correctional labour sentence
• he used one of the Centre's official ballpoint pens - but fortunately did not press too hard and indent the canvas - which makes restoration easier
• the director of the Centre says it was some kind of 'lapse of sanity'

My questions

1. Was he given the official pen as part of his uniform, did he buy it at the start of the day to celebrate his new job, or was there a 'lapse of sanity' and he just helped himself in the Museum Gift Shop where they are on sale for 85 roubles?
2. Will Lucia Scalisi do the restoration for them as part of an International Repair Shop Programme ?
3. Is the guard related to this art gallery security chap?

 

I confess to my own 'lapse of sanity' the other evening. I walked into the kitchen [wonderful and bright now the lighting has been changed] and realised that as I approached the kettle, my shadow on the oven door had a huge head and thin little neck. It looked like I was an alien. I spent ages giggling. It was hard to photograph, but you get the idea...