At Moscow’s State one of Russia’s most famous and controversial paintings, which depicts Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son, has been badly damaged after a man attacked it with a metal pole on Friday. This incident raised awkward questions about how Russia protects its historical and cultural artifacts.
In an interior ministry video, a 37-year-old man called Igor Podporin described how he had knocked back 100 grams of vodka in the gallery’s cafe, became “overwhelmed”, and then used a metal security pole to strike the canvas several times.
“As a result of the blows the thick glass … was smashed,” the gallery said. “Serious damage was done to the painting. The canvas was pierced in three places in the central part of the work which depicts the figure of the tsarevich [the tsar’s son].”
The frame was also badly damaged, the gallery said, but that “by a happy coincidence” the most precious elements of the painting, the depiction of the faces and hands of the tsar and his son were not damaged.
Vladimir Aristarkhov, the deputy culture minister, said jail time for such attacks should be sharply increased from the three-year maximum. He added that Russia’s museums had a shortfall of about 1,000 security guards, and called for the attacker to be made an example of.
The Tretyakov’s curator, Tatyana Gorodkova, told reporters that Podporin had shouted something at the time of his attack to the effect that Ivan the Terrible did not kill his son. The painting depicts Ivan cradling his son after dealing him a mortal blow.
When Tregulova, the gallery’s director, asked if she took responsibility for the latest attack, She said she would not be taking her own life and said the incident had been hard to stop.
“It was not possible to do anything. It was a question of seconds,” she said, saying the gallery nonetheless planned to review security.
Zelfira Tregulova, director of the Tretyakov, said she wanted to stop the sale of alcohol on the gallery’s premises and would be holding talks with the lessees of an on-site cafe and restaurant.
She told “as we’ve now understood, there were small bottles of wine or cognac in the cafe. We’re going to talk to the cafe and ask them to remove them.”
>Juthy Saha
Russian Art Gallery to Review Alcohol Sales After Attack on Masterpiece
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