Repin's Vandalized Painting Ivan The Terrible Returns To Russia's Tretyakov Gallery

Russian painter Ilya Repin's masterpiece Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581, which was damaged by a vandal in 2018, has been returned to the Moscow's State Tretyakov Gallery, its permanent place of exhibition, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2022) Russian painter Ilya Repin's masterpiece Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581, which was damaged by a vandal in 2018, has been returned to the Moscow's State Tretyakov Gallery, its permanent place of exhibition, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Monday.

On May 19, the gallery confirmed that a four-year-long restoration process was completed.

"Throughout these four years, we had been asked when it (the restoration) was going to end. What you can see today is the result of four years of work, which was focused not only on repairing the extremely severe damage caused in the attack but also on the fact that this painting had serious, chronic preservation problems," General Director of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova said at a press conference.

The painting is now in its usual place in Room 29 at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane.

In late May 2018, Russian resident Igor Podporin made his way to an empty hall with a collection of Repin's paintings just before the closure of the gallery and struck the masterpiece framed under glass with a metal rack several times. The perpetrator later said that Ivan the Terrible, in his opinion, had been recognized as a saint and the painting, which shows the Tsar having killed his own son, insulted believers' feelings and was historically inaccurate.

The psychiatric examination declared Podporin sane. The man confessed that he had been "hammered" after having drunk 100 grams (3.5 oz) of vodka in the museum cafeteria shortly before its closure.