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News on the NABOKOV MUSEUM in SAINT-PETERSBURG
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----- Original Message -----
From: Sandy P. Klein
The English-language newspaper of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Published since May 1993 by Independent Media, with editions every Tuesday and Friday.
#934, Tuesday, January 13, 2004
http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/934/news/n_11360.htm
#934, Tuesday, January 13, 2004
NEWS
Nabokov Museum Rent Arrears
By Vladimir Kovalev
STAFF WRITER
The hearing was adjourned until March 1.
City Hall says the museum owes the city budget about $23,000, according to an agreement signed by the museum's management in 1998. The agreement determined the rental at $500 per month for the 345-square meter area occupied by the museum on the ground floor of a building at 57 Bolshaya Morskaya, where Nabokov spent the first 18 years of his life. But no rent has been paid.
"According to a new law, the building will soon get the status of an architectural monument of federal significance," property committee spokeswoman Tatyana Prosvirina said Monday in a telephone interview. "When that happens, we may allow the museum to use the space at no charge."
The museum has not been able to raise enough funds to pay the rent because its only income is from ticket sales and private donations, Tatyana Ponomoryova, the museum's director said Monday in an interview. This income is just enough to keep the museum running and pay the salaries of its three employees.
"Honestly speaking, we can not [pay the debt back]," Ponomaryova said. "People tell us that the debt is not all that big, but sponsors and art patrons invest only in popular events that draw large crowds. If only I knew a person of that kind ... "
"The museum was bound to have such problems organized the way it was," she said.
Ponomoryova took over the museum in 2002.
Dmitry Nabokov, the writer's son who lives in Switzerland, has taken the stance that the house belonged to the family and was taken from them illegally by the Soviets, so the government itself should care about such questions as financing for the museum.
His father fled Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and lived in Europe for many years before taking up a teaching position in the United States. He died in 1977 in Montreux, Switzerland.
Dmitry Nabokov has agreed to transfer to the museum money he receives as payments for publishing rights, but Russian publishers treat Nabokov's works as not subject to copyright law because they were written before 1973, she said.
In November, the estate filed a court case in Moscow over unpaid royalties.
Even if royalties were paid, they would not be large amounts, Ponomoryova said.
In August, City Hall told the museum to pay the debt within a month, but Ponomaryova said this was not enough time to collect the money.
"I wrote letters to City Hall, but because it was summer, many officials were on holidays and because of the [gubernatorial election campaign], many of them went unanswered," she said. "We started this work again in November."
City Hall's cultural committee is considering putting the museum under municipal jurisdiction, but it would take some time until all the technical details of the plan are clarified, she added.
"If they signed off the debt we would have handed over the museum to the city," she said.
Before 1917, Nabokov's family occupied all three floors of the building. A dining room, hall and library were located on the ground floor, a living area for parents was on the first floor and children's rooms were on the third floor. While the young writer lived there the house was frequently visited by famous figures, including singer Fyodor Chaliapin and Sergei Kusevitsky, a conductor and pianist who gave the future writer music lessons. In 1914, Nabokov's family was visited by British writer H.G. Wells, a British writer who was admired by the family.
The first and second floors are currently occupied by Nevskoye Vremya newspaper, while the ground floor is frequently visited by foreign tourists and scholstd from around the world who study Russian emigre literature.
Ponomoryova said the building could have been a perfect place to organize not only an exhibition on Nabokov, but also to organize exhibits on different topics of Russian emigre literature, since there is no such place in Russia that covers the subject, except the library of Russian emigre literature Library, organized by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in Moscow.
The cultural committee could not be reached for comment Monday.
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http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/934/news/n_11360.htm
The English-language newspaper of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Published since May 1993 by Independent Media, with editions every Tuesday and Friday.
#934, Tuesday, January 13, 2004
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