RUSSIA: The cellist Mstislav Rostropovich is being sued by the residents of a flat who claim that his plan to renovate the apartment above, where Dmitri Shostakovich lived, has ruined their property.
Builders began renovating the historic flat at flat 7, Marat Street, in St Petersburg at Rostropovich's request last July. He wanted to turn the flat into a museum in honour of one of his favourite composers.
Ms Irina Kameneva and her flatmate at flat 5, Mr Yuri Schegolev, say cracks appeared in their ceiling almost immediately. They are suing Rostropovich for more than €10,000 in damages.
They say several letters to the cellist through a foundation he runs in Washington have gone unanswered and they only heard from his representative on Monday, when their case came to court.
Shostakovich lived in flat 7 from 1914, when he was eight years old, to 1934 and wrote many of his best early works, including Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and The Age of Gold, while he lived there.
Stalin reportedly attended a performance of the former and was so disgusted that he condemned the opera and its composer.
Neighbours say the cracks in the ceiling were caused by the builders above taking up the flat's floors.
Beneath the floorboards was sand and building waste which the builders promptly removed before re-flooring the flat.
But this led the boards between the two flats to buckle upwards once the weight was removed and their ceiling to crack. The dispute has become a cause célèbre in Russia and sparked intense interest from the media.
Another resident of the building, Mr Ridion Yegorov, said: "I do not think that Mr Rostropovich knows that this is going on. I do not know if he will help.
The Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation, which the cellist established to improve the healthcare of Russian children, did not return calls yesterday.