Gallery owner beaten up

Moscow

Ten skinheads burst into a Moscow art gallery this week and beat up the gallery’s owner, who is known for showing political art critical of the government and the far right. The men also smashed works by an ethnic Georgian artist. “They started to beat me with their shoes, with chairs,” said gallery owner Marat Guelman. “Then they threw a computer at me. It was awful.” Just before the attack, Russian border officials seized artworks that Guelman was sending to a gallery in London. The works mocked President Putin and the war on terror. It’s unclear, though, whether the attack was related to Guelman’s politics or to the growing crackdown on ethnic Georgians in the wake of a dispute between Georgia and Russia.