Art Gallery Guards Walk Out In Russia

Guards at one of Russia’s top art museums walked away from their posts Monday to protest unpaid wages and threatened a full strike if the debt is not paid by year’s end.

“If the guard is removed we will be forced to close,” said Valentin Rodionov, director of the Tretyakov Gallery, which houses one of the country’s biggest collections of Russian art.

Police guards at the gallery have not been paid for months and are owed more than $1 million, Rodionov told NTV television.

Like most Russian museums, the gallery is routinely underfunded by the cash-strapped federal government.