Elif Batuman, a PhD candidate in Slavic languages at Stanford University, had an essay in the May 29th issue of the New Yorker about an ice sculpture of Empress Anna's palace which was installed this past winter near the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg. It was so fabulous that, according to Batuman, "despite the bitter cold and a high admission fee -- a hundred and fifty rubles or five dollars -- visitors waited in kilometre-long lines" to see it. Here's what happened next:

The House of Ice closed on a Friday in mid-March, but the weather was still wintry, and there were rumors that the palace would stay up through the weekend. Sunday morning, I headed to Palace Square one last time, intending to take some photographs. But, when I turned the corner of Nevsky Prospect, all that remained was a pile of galacial rubble. "Zrya! Zyra!" people were saying -- "What a waste!" A small bearded man in a long overcoat and a fur hat stood next to me, shaking his head. "When did they tear it down," I asked him. "Who knows? Late last night. What a waste. What a shame."