Brodsky Museum Update

The museum slated to open in Joseph Brodsky's family flat faced financial troubles, but it looks like it may still happen with help from the good ol' U S of A, according to this article from The St. Petersburg Times.

Now hear this:

The apartment-museum of Russian-born Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Joseph Brodsky may open in the city as a joint cultural project between Russia and the U.S., City Hall said.

Vasily Kichedzhi, deputy governor of St. Petersburg, said that City Hall was ready to take an active part in opening a museum devoted to the poet, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. However, the project could be too expensive for the city budget, he was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Therefore, the city would welcome a joint Russian-American project, Kichedzhi said during a visit to Brodsky’s apartment together with American Consul General to St. Petersburg Bruce Turner on Tuesday.

Kichedzhi said the long period of time during which Brodsky lived in the U.S. had a significant influence on the poet’s creative works.

Currently, City Hall is considering two options for opening the museum: Either buy the last apartment room that it does not yet own from its occupant, a 74-year-old woman reportedly asking 17 million rubles ($562,000) for her 44-square-meter room — the most paid for any of the other four rooms was 10 million rubles ($330,000) — or make a separate entrance to Brodsky’s rooms in the apartment.