Mark Rothko defacement: man arrested on suspicion of criminal damage A man calling himself Vladimir Umanets said he was responsible for writing on a Rothko at the Tate Modern. Photograph: Posted on Twitter A man has been arrested in connection with the police investigation into the defacement of a Mark Rothko mural at the Tate Modern on Sunday evening. The 26-year-old, who was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, was detained in Worthing by officers from Sussex police, who were acting on behalf of the Metropolitan police. The Tate Modern was closed briefly on Sunday after a person inscribed what appeared to be the words "Vladimir Umanets, A Potential Piece of Yellowism" in black ink in a corner of Rothko's 1958 canvas Black on Maroon. Vladimir Umanets, a Russian-born artist, later said that he had written on the canvas as an artistic gesture in order to draw attention to developments in contemporary art and the concept of "yellowism," an idea he and a partner had conceived. "I believe that if someone restores the [Rothko] piece and removes my signature the value of the piece would be lower but after a few years the value will go higher because of what I did," he said, comparing himself to Marcel Duchamp, the French artist who shocked the art establishment when he signed a urinal and put it on display in 1917. I didn't destroy the picture. I did not steal anything. There was a lot of stuff like this before. Marcel Duchamp signed things that were not made by him, or even Damien Hirst.