We have not been able to independently verify this information, but it appears that a Rothko painting at the Tate Modern in London has been defaced by a vandal. Tim Wright tweeted a photo of the painting today and he tweeted an eyewitness report:

The painting that was defaced appears to be Rothko’s “Black on Maroon” (1958), and if that is true than the writing that appears above is quite large as the painting is 90 x 81 1/2″ (2286 x 2070mm) [EDITOR’S NOTE: Please see UPDATE 13]:

The Tate Modern has been evacuated according to a number of sources, including this tweeter:

And this from the BBC:

We will post more information as it becomes available.

UPDATE: Greg Allen, of greg.org, has potentially found the culprit:

And what’s with that site? It reads like shlocky high school art theory, and, of course, “Yellowism” has a manifesto:

Using this newfound knowledge, we can probably deduce that the vandalism reads:

UPDATE 2: BBC confirms that the painting has been vandalized:

UPDATE 3: A Tate spokesperson said the following to BBC:

“Tate can confirm that there was an incident in which a visitor defaced one of Rothko’s Seagram murals by applying a small area of black paint with a brush to the painting.”

UPDATE 4: As this story develops, Sarah Hromack has a great point about the role of technology in the reporting of this incident:

UPDATE 5: The Yellowists, is that what they’re called, have a Twitter account (@thisisyellowism) but it hasn’t been active since August 29.

UPDATE 6: The Independent has the story: