The 17-story hotel, a giant and graceless gem of socialist modernist architecture cherished by aficionados of concrete, took four years to build in the 1970s and became a proud symbol of the Soviet Union’s embrace of modernity.
Wealthy tycoons have wrangled over it, shuffling ownership between opaque offshore companies, while competing groups of graffiti artists have turned its facade into a huge tableau displaying their rival loyalties.
One group daubed it with the colors of the Ukrainian flag, then a group opposed to Ukraine painted a Russian military symbol.
In June, a new group painted the exterior with the colors of Moldova’s flag.
Prosecutors and preservationists have struggled to understand how what was once a prize piece of real estate has fallen on such hard times.
Organizations:
Prosecutors
Locations:
Soviet, Moldova, Chisinau, Ukrainian, Ukraine, Russian