The famous Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Kulakov, aged 82, died in the Italian city of San Vito di Narni (Tuscany).

      The prominent figure of the Russian culture abroad, Mikhail Kulakov was born in Moscow on January 8, 1933. He studied at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations and at the Production Faculty of the N. K. Cherkasov Leningrad Institute for Theater, Music and Cinema.

      Mikhail Kulakov lived and worked in Italy from 1976. He became an honorary member of the Pietro Perugino Arts Academy in 1984.

      Paintings by Mikhail Kulakov are kept in collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and other famous museums. His mosaic panels decorate two stations of the Roman subway.