INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Georgian-Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, known for his towering and often controversial public monuments, has died at age 91, Russian
assistant Sergei Shagulashvili told the RIA Novosti news agency.Born and trained in Tbilisi, Tsereteli rose to prominence in the 1960s,
designing resort complexes in Soviet Georgia
on public art in the Russian capital
sailing down the Moscow River was widely criticized, while his 500-ton Christopher Columbus monument, built in the early 1990s, was rejected
Stalin.In the final years of the Soviet Union, Tsereteli briefly gained international acclaim with works celebrating the end of the Cold
Soviet and American missile fragments.In 2001, he attempted to donate a 30-meter sculpture dedicated to victims of the 9/11 attacks to New
The piece, featuring a giant teardrop, was declined but later installed in 2005 in Bayonne, New Jersey, across the water from lower
Manhattan.Tsereteli was a vocal admirer of President Vladimir Putin
In 2004, he unveiled a five-meter bronze statue of the Russian leader in judo attire, but the Kremlin reportedly disliked the tribute so
