Finding Hidden Treasures in St. Petersburg Buildings
Volunteers scrub off decades of paint and grime. French tiles before and after. Kirill Mikhailov
At the end of March, residents in an apartment house in St. Petersburg suddenly saw that the bulky gray and green ceramic lump in their entryway was actually a majolica heating stove made by Peter Vaulin with a panel based on a drawing by Mikhail Vrubel.
They could see it because a group called the Gang spent eight hours a day for more than a week and 15,000 rubles (about US$200) carefully stripping layers of paint, dust, putty and dirt from the old tiles.