A work of art (based on the true story)

They say this story happened at some Moscow museum during the contemporary Japanese painting exhibition. While hanging the paintings, one of the workers accidentally stained a landscape of a famous Japanese artist: in the upper right corner of the canvas, right on the pale winter sky covered with whitish clouds, a stain appeared. Not a fat visible stain, but rather a dull spot of a suspicious dirty-yellowish color, similar to the mark of an unwashed finger. Although being small and dim, it unpleasantly caught one's eye and disfigured the majestic picture of winter nature. The workers team foreman noticed the stain, and after small consideration was the stain was not a trick of the light or a figment of his imagination, he wanted to get drunk and die.

After some consideration, whether this stain was a real thing or just a figment of his imagination, he wanted to die instantly from shame; or get drunk, to became dead. One way or another, the situation went beyond the limits of what is tolerable/compatible with life.

So, the foreman gathered all of the workers team.
— Who did this, - he asked. - I want to know immediately: who did ruined the painting?!!
— We hardly can remember who exactly hung this picture, - answered the team, looking guiltily at the floor. - Whoever did it, it wasn't on purpose, no malicious intent involved for sure.
— Razzvizdyai,[] - the foreman said. - Drunken idiots, you've ruined a nice painting! Fck you. What I am supposed to do with it now? [ cursing in a good-natured manner]
Someone came up with an uncertain idea.
— Well, we can pretend its not us; lets say it was already like that when it arrived to our museum.
The foreman welcomed this proposal with no smile.
— What if I pull out both your crutches out of the pants, and say "it was already like that before?" - he exclaimed with a note of a promise. - Dont you understand this is a political question... have you even heard about the Kuril islands problem?
The team stayed dejectedly silent.
The foreman clutched his head in despair.
— Okay: all of the team will be deprived of your bonus to the salary - thats just something to start with.
The prospect of being punished financially seemed to stimulate the brainstorming. Someone came up with a bright idea:
— What if we just paint it over?
The foreman shuddered and looked at his advisor with hatred.
But suddenly, majority of the team count this idea to be a smart and promising solution.
— Lets do it! - Thats a beautiful idea! - Easy-peasy, there is nothing special with that canvas, no details except some pale mud in the sky. Anyone can do that.
The foreman asked venomously:
— And who exactly is going to do the job? You?
— Me? Why me? - the author of the bright idea immediately took a step back. - Museum staff has an artist, Genych - lets delegate him this job. And we all will pool money for his favorite fee - a bottle of vodka.

At first sight the idea seemed crazy, but after talking out all the technical details everybody became convinced it might work. Gradually it took hold of the foreman as well. Besides that, nobody could suggest a better idea anyway; and also they hadn't much time for further talking - it was necessary to act very quickly, before any of museum clerks became aware of the problem with the ill-fated landscape.
— Okay. Bring in your Michelangelo, - agreed the foreman.

Genych justified the trust; the piece of sky he had painted over did not stand out against the general light-gray background of original painting. The team lined up to shake his hand. Genych puffed himself up with importance and hinted the fee they talked out could be increased a bit. He left the room housing three bottles of vodka in a bag and one in his stomach; after that nobody have seen him for several days.

Exhibition was launched; on the opening day, the Japanese artist who was the author of said canvas, showed up. (He was invited to give a lecture on the state of Japanese art as part of the exhibition). Accompanied by a museum clerk, the artist swaggered through the gallery, stopped in front of his own painting and stared at it. From the clerk's point of view, there was nothing special or remarkable about the painting, just a dull winter landscape. He stood and waited patiently for the Japanese artist to enjoy the sight enough and they could move on.
However, something was clearly not okay.
— What is this? - the artist finally squeezed out.
The clerk leaned over to the caption and read the title:
— "Winter Sun". The oil painting.
— I know that. It's my painting, - answered the artist.
— Very beautiful. A wonderful landscape.
— But where do you see the sun here? - the artist asked.
The clerk strained his eyes, but did not find any.
— It was there, in the upper right corner, - the artist pointed his finger at the corner of the canvas. - Where did it go?
— Hmm. Are you sure it was there? - the clerk said without any consideration (which wasnt a wise move). The artist responded with an apoplectic wheeze and demanded to see the museum top management immediately.

A stormy proceeding have followed; the artist demanded an explanation and demanded a total investigation of this hooligan act; also he threatened to return immediately back to Japan - together with his desecrated masterpiece. It was only the promise to find and severely punish the culprit, given by museum top manager, that persuaded the artist to give back and stop cursing.

Little by little, he calmed down, changed anger to mercy and asked to provide him a brush and oil paints; in five minutes everything he needed was delivered. The artist took his brush, headed for his painting and in next five minutes returned the canvas to its original look: a suspicious dirty yellow-colored spot, similar to a trace of an unwashed finger, returned to the same spot again.

They say that this is exactly how it all happened.

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This is my English translation of original story written by Dmitry Bandura. I dont claim to appear its original author - it is the life itself, who was the real author. This post appeared in response to this ART DAMAGE blog posted by @wakeupkitty. Do check, its an intresting story giving you more options to think about life and art.

Image source: freepik.com