Free Republic

A Russian security guard on his first day on the job lifted his boredom by doodling on a $1million painting. Anna Leporskaya's avant garde Three Figures, painted sometime in the early 1930s, features three humanoid figures devoid of any facial features. Devoid, that is, until the unnamed guard got his hands on a ballpoint pen. On day one of working at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre in Yekaterinburg, the new employee decided to sketch a set of eyes on two of the figures, in what exhibition curator Anna Reshetkin described as "a lapse of sanity".

Officials at the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg in central Russia announced Monday they believe the perpetrator was a private security guard who, during his first day on the job, added eyes to the faceless figures with a ballpoint pen. He has since been fired, and the Three Figures painting, done by Anna Leporskaya between 1932 and 1934, has been sent back to Moscow for restoration. The painting is insured for nearly $1 million and was on loan from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The damage will be remedied with a restoration expected to cost over $3,000, according to the...