'An artistic statement': Vandal defaces Rothko painting

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By Christina Marker, NBC NewsLONDON -- British police are investigating the defacing of a painting by Russian-American artist Mark Rothko at London's leading contemporary art museum.

The incident took place on Sunday when a visitor to Tate Modern applied "a small area of black paint with a brush to the painting," according to the gallery.

Photographs of the damage showed the text "VLADIMIR UMANETS '12, A POTENTIAL PIECE OF YELLOWISM'' scrawled on Rothko's 1958 canvas "Black on Maroon."

'Not art or anti-art'

Using a phone number posted on on the so-called "Yellowism" movement's website, a Reuters journalist spoke to a man answering to the name Vladimir Umanets who said he carried out the attack.

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