Museum vandalised ahead of Nabokov`s `Lolita` show

St. Petersburg: Vandals spray-painted the word "paedophiles" on the wall of a modern art museum in St. Petersburg ahead of a performance based on ‘Lolita’, Vladimir Nabokov`s most famous book.

Anastasia Blokhina, press secretary of the Erarta museum, said the graffiti made with black paint was later erased from the wall. Nabokov, who lived in St. Petersburg until 1917, is best known for `Lolita`, the story of a teacher who becomes sexually involved with a 12-year-old girl. The Nabokov museum on Bolshaya Morskaya street in St. Petersburg has already been vandalised twice this year by protesters. Vandals broke a window at the museum Jan 9, throwing in a bottle containing a threatening message. Workers at the museum said they had been threatened, with several letters accusing Nabokov of propagating paedophilia and threatening "God`s wrath", the Fontanka.ru website reported. Three weeks later, vandals calling themselves "St. Petersburg Cossacks" spray-painted the word "paedophile" on its wall. A one-man show in St. Petersburg based on `Lolita` was cancelled by its author in October 2012, after he received threatening letters from anonymous `Cossacks`. The organizer of the performance, which went ahead in December and January at the Erarta museum, was beaten by three unidentified attackers. IANS