A painting worth £740,000 has been destroyed after a ‘bored’ security guard drew eyes on faceless figures depicted in the artwork at a Russian gallery.

On his first day on the job, the security guard had drawn two pairs of eyes with a ballpoint pen onto artist Anna Leporskaya’s ‘Three Figures’ (1932–1934) painting during an abstract art exhibition at the Yeltsin Center in the city of Yekaterinburg, western Russia.

The painting was defaced by a security guard, who has not been named but is believed to be 60-years-old, who worked for a private security company, the Yeltsin Center said in a statement.