Famous painting damaged in attack

MOSCOW - One of Russia's most famous paintings, which depicts Czar Ivan the Terrible cradling his dying son, has been badly damaged after a man attacked it with a metal pole after drinking vodka.

The canvas, Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on November 16, 1581, was completed by renowned Russian realist Ilya Repin in 1885.

The gallery in central Moscow where the painting was displayed, the State Tretyakov Gallery, said a man had attacked the canvas just before closing time on Friday evening.