Russian Man Ruins Ivan the Terrible Painting 'to Save Tsar’s Reputation'

Journalists attend a news conference about the damaged painting, ‘Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581.’ (Reuters)
Journalists attend a news conference about the damaged painting, ‘Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581.’ (Reuters)
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Russian Man Ruins Ivan the Terrible Painting 'to Save Tsar’s Reputation'

Journalists attend a news conference about the damaged painting, ‘Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581.’ (Reuters)
Journalists attend a news conference about the damaged painting, ‘Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581.’ (Reuters)

A man who attacked and damaged a masterpiece of Russian painting with a metal pole said he had acted for ideological reasons to rescue the reputation of a tsar, recanting an earlier confession that the vandalism was fueled by vodka.

According to Reuters, his statement is likely to add to liberal concern about the influence of religious conservatives and politicians who have turned Russia’s history into an ideological battleground to boost patriotism.

Igor Podporin, 37, has confessed to attacking one of the country’s most treasured 19th century art works, which depicts Tsar Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son.

In an initial confession, Podporin said he became overwhelmed after drinking vodka in the cafe of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow’s most important art museum. The gallery said that the man had somehow gotten past a group of gallery employees, picked up one of the metal security poles used to keep the public back from the painting and struck its protective glass.

The gallery said in a statement: “As a result of the blows the thick glass was smashed. Serious damage was done to the painting. The canvas was pierced in three places in the central part of the work which depicts the figure of the Tsarevich (the tsar’s son).”

The frame was also badly damaged, the gallery said, but it said that “by a happy coincidence” the most precious elements of the painting, the depiction of the faces and hands of the tsar and his son, were not damaged. But in a Moscow court appearance on Tuesday, Podporin denied he had drunk vodka before the attack, and said he had acted because he objected to the painting.

“The painting is a lie,” Podporin told the court, Russian news agencies reported. “Tsar Ivan the Terrible is ranked among the community of saints.”

The damaged painting was completed by Ilya Repin in 1885 and portrays a grief-stricken tsar holding his own son in his arms after dealing him a mortal blow. But some Russian historians dispute the idea that Ivan murdered his son, and President Vladimir Putin said last year it was unclear if the tsar was guilty or not.

Ivan Melnikov, a human rights official who visited Podporin in custody, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid newspaper on Tuesday that Podporin had been thinking about what he regarded as the incorrect portrayal of Ivan the Terrible for two years.

“I’d heard about this painting a long time ago. Even Putin said on TV that what it depicts is not true. When I got to the Tretyakov I couldn’t stop myself. Foreigners go there and look at it. What will they think about our Russian tsar? About us? It’s a provocation against the Russian people so that people view us badly,” Podporin was quoted as telling him.



10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.