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Tretyakov Gallery's painting damaged by vandal to be placed behind bullet-proof glass

The canvas was ripped in three places in the central section, while shards of glass that shattered in the attack damaged the frame as well

MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. After restoration work on Ilya Repin’s Ivan the Terrible and His Son painting, badly damaged by a vandal on Friday, it will be caged in a bullet-proof glass case, Director General of Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery, Zelfira Tregulova, told reporters on Monday.

"After long restoration work, the painting will be exhibited in a special bullet-proof case," Tregulova said, adding that Sberbank will bankroll efforts to restore the painting.

Assault on Tretyakov’s treasure

One of Russia’s most famous paintings, depicting Ivan the Terrible, grief-stricken and cradling his dying son, was damaged just before the gallery closed on Friday, May 25. Police arriving on the scene detained the perpetrator, who had smashed the glass protecting the painting with a metal poll, damaging the canvas. Criminal proceedings have been initiated. The culprit confessed to being intoxicated.

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The gallery said the painting was badly damaged. The canvas was ripped in three places in the central section, while shards of glass that shattered in the attack damaged the frame as well.

This has been the second attack on the painting. On January 16, 1913, Abram Balashov, a 29-year-old icon painter and Old Believer, took a knife and slashed the painting three times. Repin had to paint the faces of the tsar and his son anew.

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