Moscow, Russia - Leading Gallery, Painter Attacked

Moscow, Russia - A group of young men stormed into a leading Moscow art gallery, destroying an exhibition of paintings by an ethnic Georgian artist and injuring its owner for his Jewish last name.

The attack took place amid on Marat Guelman, a leading arts expert and a political consultant. He said that about 10 men he described as "militarized characters, fighters,'' burst into his gallery in central Moscow. "They stormed into the gallery, made the girls stand against the wall, began smashing everything down, then burst into my office and started beating me up and then they left,'' Guelman, 45, had to undergo surgery for face injuries. "My face was smashed into meat,'' he said.
It was posted on several nationalist Web sites, that Guelman is an "enemy of Russia'' and about his Jewish last name.

Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation, but human rights groups say authorities are turning a blind eye to the growing wave of xenophobia and racially motivated attacks in Russia. This year, 39 people have been killed in apparent hate crimes and a further 308 attacked, according to the Sova rights center which monitors xenophobia.