A plan to take away subsidized housing for artists in St. Petersburg, Russia has brought out the artists to protest. “A number of them arrived at the Legislative Assembly with banners bearing the slogans: “[Governor Valentina] Matviyenko, don’t be grudging, buy paintings!”; “St Petersburg is for the rich, the bandits and the thieves”; “Culture’s grave-diggers are Russia’s grave-diggers”; “The artists’ canvasses bind the feet of the city administration”; and also a quotation from Nekrasov – “There have been worse times, but none as mean!” “If the studios are going to be sold, then the artists will either have to leave for the West, or change their profession”.