MOSCOW, June 3 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court has attacked a civil lawsuit filed by the Federal Security Service (FSB) demanding 481,000 rubles ($7,200) in compensation from Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky to the case over setting fire to the Moscow headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), RAPSI reported from the courtroom on Friday.

Defense of Pavlensky resisted the motion.  According to lawyer Olga Dinze, caused damage has yet to be assessed. She insisted that the door restoration would be priced lower than amount demanded.

During the interrogation on Friday, an expert said that the door of the Moscow headquarters of the Federal Security Service was renovated in 2008 and it could not be considered as historical value.

Eccentric artist Pavlensky was arrested on November 9, 2015, along with several other people who claim to be journalists that were invited to the artist’s performance. The next day Pavlensky was detained under a court decision.

Initially Pavlensky was accused of vandalism but later investigators reclassified charges against him to ‘destruction of cultural heritage sites’.

Pavlensky is known for a number of controversial performances.

In July 2012, he sewed up his mouth and stood at the Kazan Cathedral with a poster in support of Pussy Riot.

In May 2013, Pavlensky lay down on the ground in front of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly naked with barbed wire around his body.

In November 2013, also naked, Pavlensky nailed his scrotum to the Red Square pavement near the Lenin Mausoleum.

In October 2014, he staged an eccentric stunt on the roof of the Serbsky Mental Institution in Moscow by cutting off one of his earlobes.

In February 2015, Pavlensky and his accomplices burned car tyres, waved Ukrainian flags and banged sheet metal with sticks in a show of solidarity with the anti-government protesters in Ukraine. The performance was held near the Church of the Savior on Blood in St. Petersburg.