The Bolshoi Theatre, undergoing renovation since 2005, may not reopen until 2013. Photograph: Denis Sinyakov /Reuters
The long-running woes of the Bolshoi Theatre deepened today when Russian prosecutors said that some of the millions spent on the crumbling venue's restoration had mysteriously vanished and may have been stolen.
Officials from
Russia's general prosecutor's office said they had opened a criminal investigation into the misuse of funds at Moscow's celebrated
ballet and oper a venue. The firm supposed to renovate the theatre was being investigated, they said.
The Bolshoi closed for restoration in 2005 after decades of neglect and the discovery of an underground stream that was undermining the foundations. It was supposed to reopen this year. Instead the date has embarrassingly been put back several times, officially until 2011 but unofficially until 2013.
Currently covered in scaffolding, the theatre has been at the centre of a turf war between federal officials and Moscow's powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. Luzhkov was not invited to restore the neo-classical building, a decision that appears to have slowed the pace of reconstruction.
Today the prosecutor's investigation committee said it was examining the Kurortproekt company, which won the contract to renovate the theatre. It said the firm had apparently been paid three times for the same work for a sum totalling nearly 500m roubles (£9.6m).
Russia's federal directorate for construction, reconstruction and restoration paid the bill, it said. So far no one has been charged, it added. Russia's federal auditor apparently picked up the discrepancy while trawling through the accounts.
The Bolshoi's ballet corps and opera house continue to perform at a temporary venue across the road. Tickets for performances are invariably sold out, though it is always possible to buy tickets from the hairy touts who hang around near Teatralnaya metro station.
the Bolshoi Theatre denied any wrongdoing. "The minis try of culture and not the Bolshoi was responsible for the reconstruction process itself," said Lyubov Bushayeva, a spokeswoman for the theatre. Officials of the ministry of culture, which oversees the directorate, were unavailable for comment.
The saga is embarrassing for the Kremlin, and comes at a time when Russia is trying to clamp down on corruption. The state news agency, RIA Novosti, yesterday quoted Kremlin officials saying they would exercise greater vigilance over Bolshoi spending in future.
The main building of the Bolshoi – it means "big" in Russian _ was opened in 1825.
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