UMANIEC: TWO YEARS FOR TATE MODERN VANDAL

A vandal who defaced a modernist masterpiece with a marker pen at the Tate Modern was jailed for two years today (Thurs).

Wlodzimierz Umaniec, 26, strolled into the central London gallery and scrawled across Mark Rothko’s 1958 work Black on Maroon.

Horrified art lovers looked on as he wrote his name and ‘a potential piece of Yellowism’ – a reference to a supposed art movement – on the canvas.

Bosses at Tate Modern estimate it will cost nearly £200,000 and take nearly two years to restore the painting following the attack last October 7.

Galleries across the country could also force visitors to stand further away from artwork to increase security, Inner London Crown Court was told.

Judge Roger Chapple said he had no option but to jail Umaniec for two years to stop copycat attacks on art across the country.

He said: ‘Your professed objective was to promote the case of Yellowism.

‘I will not pass comment on that because it would be wrong in the context of this case to give it the publicity you desire.

‘It is totally and wholly unacceptable to promote it by damaging this work of art. This art was a gift to the public.

‘Restoration work is likely to take something in the range of 20 months during which the public will be deprived of this painting, of the work of Mark Rothko, who you describe in your letter to me as a “great painter”.’

Umaniec, who was born in Kostomuksha, Russia, but is a Polish national, came to Britain in 2009 and is in the third year of a postgraduate degree in fine art.

He was caught on CCTV entering the room repeatedly before he finally took out a marker pen to carry out his ‘pre-meditated’ vandalism, said prosecutor Gregor McKinley.

‘Immediately following the damage to the picture, the gallery staff implemented a procedure shutting down all of the doors to the gallery but the defendant had already managed to leave the premises,’ he said.

‘The next day the defendant have a number of interviews to the press in which he admitted that he had written on the painting, and are notable for the lack of any sense of contrition for what he had done.

‘He tried to justify it as some kind of artwork.

‘The work required to restore this picture will be complex and lengthy. Complications to this work include the unique painting technique used by the artists and the fact the ink used by Mr Umaniec has gone all the way through the canvas itself.

‘The best current estimate is that this work will take 20 months and cost something around £200,000.

‘London has a range of art galleries and museums containing an enormous number of valuable artworks and exhibits.

‘When a gallery enhances security this takes away financial resources from its core activity of acquiring and conserving works of art for the public, and also disrupts the experience of visitors to galleries and distance between the visitor and the art.’

The vandal, who was accompanied by followers of the Yellowism movement in court, wrote a letter to the judge in which he claimed his actions were ‘not intentional’.

Gareth Morgan, defending, said Umaniec appreciated it was ‘entirely realistic’ that he would go to jail for his actions.

He asked for him to be given credit for pleading guilty to his crime, claiming the CCTV in the gallery did not clearly show it was Umaniec who carried out the scrawling.

Umaniec, of (20) Wandsworth Plain, Wandsworth, south west London, admitted criminal damage.