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Attacker of Ivan the Terrible painting by Repin says he was pressured by gallery staff

The police arrested the attacker

Igor Podporin, who damaged the painting "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581" by Ilya Repin Mikhail Pochuev/TASS

Igor Podporin, who damaged the painting "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581" by Ilya Repin

© Mikhail Pochuev/TASS

MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. The man who damaged the painting "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581" by Ilya Repin at the Tretyakov Gallery said in court that he had been pressured.

"This painting is inaccurate: he [Ivan the Terrible] is numbered with the saints," he said at Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court which is to decide whether to place him into custody.

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He also refuted his earlier words that he had drunk alcohol before the incident. He does not plead guilty, saying that "everyone pressured him, including the Tretyakov Gallery staff."

On the evening of May 25 the police received a report about damage inflicted to "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581" at the Tretyakov Gallery. The police arrested the attacker who had picked up one of the metal security poles used to keep visitors back from the painting, struck the protective glass covering and damaged the canvas. Based on this fact, a criminal case was launched.

A law enforcement source earlier told TASS that the arrested man, aged 37, explained to the police that he had damaged the painting because he thought it was historically inaccurate.

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