Man arrested on suspicion of defacing Rothko work

LONDON (AP) - British police on Monday arrested the man who told journalists he was responsible for scrawling graffiti on a mural by modern American master Mark Rothko at London's Tate Modern museum.

Scotland Yard launched its investigation after the mural, one of Rothko's Seagram series, was defaced Sunday with what appears to be the words "Vladimir" and "a potential piece of yellowism." Vladimir Umanets, who identifies himself as the co-founder an artistic movement he calls "Yellowism," told journalists he was behind the graffiti.

According to an online manifesto, Yellowism is an artistic movement run by Umanets and another person, Marcin Lodyga.

Earlier on Monday Umanets told Britain's Press Association news agency that he wanted to draw people's attention to his movement, which he described as "an element of contemporary visual culture." "The main difference between Yellowism and art is that in art you have got freedom of interpretation. In Yellowism you don't have freedom of interpretation, everything is about Yellowism, that's it," he said.