Did a caretaker of Ukrainian origin cause damage of 100,000 euros ($110,275) by breaking a statue in a gallery of modern art in Paris? No, that's not true: The sculpture in this post, by Swedish-born artist Anna Uddenberg, has been displayed in various exhibitions and remains untouched by acts of vandalism. A janitor named Valery Tarashchuk, reportedly of Ukrainian origin and residing in Paris, has not yet been positively identified.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on TikTok by @...lsp on November 24, 2023. The text on the video (translated from Russian to English by Lead Stories staff) reads
A Ukrainian man tried to copulate with the statue and broke it.
Valery Tarashchuk worked as a janitor at a contemporary art gallery in Paris and caused 100,000 euros worth of damage to the sculpture.
They demolish monuments, they fuck monuments...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Dec 21 12:45:04 2023 UTC)
A Google search, using the phrase (in Russian) "Ukrainian broke the statue AND Paris AND 100,000 euros" (archived here) revealed that the video was first posted on a Russian website called dzen.ru (archived here). That website incorporated the Euronews logo into the video, insinuating that the report was published by the Euronews channel. However, no such report was discovered in a search on the Euronews website using the keywords: "Valery Tarashchuk AND gallery caretaker AND self-discovery sculpture AND Anna Uddenberg" (archived here).
Russian-speaking outlets, including Belarusian Telegram channels, shared this video, for example here (archived here) and here (archived here). The videos identify the sculpture as the "Journey of Self Discovery," created by Anna Uddenberg. This sculpture does indeed exist; the Swedish-born author crafted it in 2016, and it has been showcased in diverse locations, including Berlin.
A search for keywords "Anna Uddenberg Journey of Self Discovery" AND "damage" AND "in Paris" (archived here) conducted on December 21, 2023, with the Google News index of thousands of credible news sites also found no evidence-based reports of damage to the artwork in Paris.
