Russia’s radical political performance artist, Pyotr Pavlensky, has been arrested in Paris after setting the Bank of France on fire, the Dozhd TV network reported on Monday.



France granted Pavlensky and his partner asylum in May, months after Russia fined him for a 2015 arson attack of the Federal Security Service building.

Pavlensky gained notoriety for anti-Kremlin stunts including nailing his scrotum to the Red Square cobblestones, slicing off part of his ear and sewing his mouth shut.

The French-language edition of Kremlin-backed RT television channel reported that police detained Pavlensky in the early hours of Monday after he set fire to the doors of the Bank of France.