This is a rather odd headline:
Can The Crumbling Berlin Wall Be Saved?
Artists want to preserve it:The Berlin Wall has been battered by age, the elements, souvenir-hunting tourists and commercial development. This once-detested symbol of the Cold War and a divided nation is desperately in need of a makeover.
Now a group of artists is trying to keep the most iconic part of the Communist-era barrier standing.
The .81-mile stretch of the wall along the Spree River holds a Thierry Noir painting of bright tall cartoon faces and Brigit Kinder's famous image of an East German Trabi car breaking through the wall.
[...]
In hopes of keeping it intact as a reminder of the divided city, Alavi and other artists registered the stretch of wall as an art gallery. It is now formally known as Küstlerinitiative (artists' initiative) East Side Gallery e.V.
The 52-year-old Iranian-born Alavi has been the cornerstone of the preservation effort for nearly two decades.
"I come from a country where the wall is in the heads of the people, there are walls between the cultures, but in the end those people share the same fates," he said.
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