Moscow city government to discuss creation of graffiti council

An expert council may be set up to check the aesthetic quality of graffiti in the Russian capital, Moscow.

According to Moscow news website M24.ru, the possibility of the creation of such a council will be discussed in the next meeting of the Moscow City Duma.

“The city needs proper, beautiful decoration, like in Europe, including in terms of graffiti,” said the chairman of the Commission on Culture and Mass Communications of the Moscow City Duma, Yevgeny Gerasimov.

Mr Gerasimov used Lisbon as an example of best practice, where “everywhere there are [graffiti] copies of paintings exhibited in museums there”. He also cited a new joint project by the Department of Culture and the Russian Military History Society, in which portraits of military leaders have appeared around the city, as an example of a positive initiative.

In the words of Mr Gerasimov, the council would check graffiti “for quality” and arrange for the removal of any graffiti that does not meet aesthetic standards.

Source: Afisha (in Russian)