During a visit to the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg in December, two visitors spotted eyes drawn in ballpoint pen on Anna Leporskaya's work Three Figures.
The avant-garde painting features three abstract, and usually eyeless, figures.
The security guard has since been fired and the police have opened a criminal investigation.
In a statement the Yeltsin Center's executive director Alexander Drozdov said the security guard was employed by a private security organisation.