Range of paintings defaced (5)
I believe the answer is:
urals
'range' is the definition.
(mountain range)
'paintings defaced' is the wordplay.
'paintings' becomes 'murals' (mural is a kind of painting).
'defaced' means to remove the first letter (the word with its face removed).
'murals' with its initial letter taken away is 'URALS'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for urals that I've seen before include "Russian mountain range" , "Mountains of Western Russia" , "Mountains on the boundary between Europe and Asia" , "Mountain range in Russia and Kazakhstan" , "Russian mountains" .)