YEREVAN (Armenpress)–According to the reports of the "Vest" Russian television news program–the grave of academician Hovsep Orbeli was vandalized on July 30 in St. Petersburg.
According to the same source–those responsible also desecrated the grave sites of other famous cultural figures.
Born in 1887–Orbeli founded and became the first president of the National Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia. Orbeli was instrumental in preserving material from the "Hermitage" during the second world war.
He was called upon to testify at the Nuremberg trials against war-time Nazi aggression in Leningrad.
Later on in his life–Orbeli became the head of the Near Eastern Studies Department of the State University of Leningrad. After the Second World War–Orbeli remained in Leningrad up to his death in 1961.