Vandals defaced an exhibit on religion at Moscow's Sakharov Museum, smearing artwork with paint and breaking installations, the museum's director said Sunday.
The group of six adults came to the museum Saturday saying they wanted to see the exhibit, titled "Caution: Religion," director Yuri Samodurov said. They then began destroying installations, writing on the walls and pouring paint over photographs and paintings, he said. A museum employee locked them inside the room and called the police, who arrived minutes later and detained the vandals.
The six were later released pending an investigation, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported, citing police.
The vandals appeared to interpret the exhibit, which dealt with issues such as religious fundamentalism and church-state relations, as aimed against Russian Orthodox believers, Samodurov said.
He said the exhibit was not intended to be anti-religious and that the title reflected the need to be cautious and respectful in matters of faith. However, he conceded that some of the art could have been misinterpreted and that organizers should have included more explanatory notes in the exhibit.
Orthodoxy is the dominant religion in Russia and has undergone a resurgence since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with its doctrine of official atheism. Many nationalist groups have been pushing for a stronger role in state affairs for the Russian Orthodox Church, including religious classes in public schools. Such ideas have evoked protests from Russian liberals and human rights organizations.
Saturday's incident was not the first act of vandalism at the museum, which is named after Soviet dissident and Nobel peace laureate Andrei Sakharov and which promotes democracy and human rights. In May, anti-Semitic and obscene slogans were spray-painted over a mural of Sakharov outside the museum.
Samodurov said the museum would most likely leave the religion exhibit up without fixing the damage until the end of the month. He said the vandals' handiwork would become part of the display.