A Polish man has been charged with criminal damage after a painting by Russian-American artist Mark Rothko was defaced in London's Tate Modern museum, police said Tuesday.
Wlodzimierz Umaniec, 26, who is also known as Vladimir Umanets, is accused of damaging Rothko's 1958 canvas Black on Maroon on Sunday.
The words "Vladimir Umanets, a potential piece of yellowism" were daubed in black onto the bottom-right corner of the painting.
Witnesses said a man calmly approached the Rothko painting in the Tate before marking it.
The museum said it would be repaired by an in-house team of experts.
Rothko, a key figure in 20th century abstract painting whose works sell at auction for tens of millions of dollars, was commissioned to paint the Seagram Murals in the 1950s for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York.
