You're reading: New York Times: ‘Ivan the Terrible’ painting damaged in Russia in vodka-fueled attack

New York Times: ‘Ivan the Terrible’ painting damaged in Russia in vodka-fueled attack

Published May 28, 2018 at 10:32 am

People queue to visit the exhibition by Russian artist Valentin Serov at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow on January 22, 2016. A top Russian museum struggled to control record crowds as thousands rushed to see a 19th-century art exhibition, queing for hours in the snow and even breaking a door. The exhibition of paintings by Valentin Serov, renowned for his society portraits, broke attendance records at Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, with visitors queueing outside in freezing temperatures to see the show before it closes Sunday. "Yesterday the entrance door was damaged," spokeswoman Anna Kotlyar told AFP. "This exhibition broke all records with over 400,000 visitors."

Photo by AFP

One of Russia’s most famous paintings, which depicts the czar Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son, has been badly damaged in a Moscow gallery after a man drank vodka and attacked it with a metal pole, the police said.

The 1885 canvas, “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581,” by the Russian realist Ilya Repin, portrays a grief-stricken Ivan holding his son after dealing him a mortal blow, an event whose veracity some Russian nationalists dispute.