Portrait of Vladimir Putin as Simpsons Character Stolen from Gallery

A portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a Simpsons character was stolen from a Moscow business center on Tuesday.

avl-letter-upper-case-v-stretched-wall-art-black-lg ladimir Putin is many different things to many different people. The polarizing politician has sparked debate and curiosity at home and abroad. Love him or hate him, he’s an icon of Russia’s modern history. One artist decided to render that iconic image in the style of another creator of pop-culture paradigms, Simpson’s mastermind Matt Groening.

Unfortunately, his painting, titled “Man of an Era”, was stolen from a central Moscow business center earlier this week.

https://twitter.com/afishagorod/status/636571837930074112/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The artist behind the painting, Turkmenistan-born Amir Kerr, opened the exhibition at the business center last Friday. The Simpsons-inspired take on Putin was so popular it sold within fifteen minutes of the opening. Afisha Magazine reports the painting was heavily photographed by guests, and enjoyed viral popularity on photo-sharing service Instagam.

Sometime after the exhibit closed on Monday, thieves broke in and snatched the painting. Only two event organizers and three security guards were present when the theft took place. The thieves are apparently good at what they do. No trace of them has been found, despite the center containing security cameras. Organizers say they couldn’t detect the thieves even after examining hours of CCTV footage.

‘Even after viewing three hours of footage from surveillance cameras,’ said one organizer, ‘we failed to learn the identity of the thief. We have to admit, they worked skillfully.’*

*Quote is paraphrased from original Russian. Original quote can be found here.

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