Eter Nikolaishvili, 28, arrested on suspicion of assaulting 98-year-old architect after he was taken to hospital with bleeding lacerations and bruises

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A carer for the architect IM Pei, whose work includes the renovation of the Louvre in Paris and Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art, has been charged with assaulting the 98-year-old in his Manhattan townhouse.

Eter Nikolaishvili, 28, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of assaulting Pei early in December when he threatened to report her to the police for “doing something bad”, police said. Neither a representative for Nikolaishvili nor the Manhattan district attorney’s office could be reached for comment.

Pei was taken to hospital at 4am on the day of the alleged assault suffering from bleeding lacerations and bruising, after Nikolaishvili grabbed and twisted his arm, police said.

Nikolaishvili was released without bail on Tuesday, the New York Post reported.

Pei, who was born in China in 1917 and went to the US to study architecture at the age of 17, has won numerous prestigious awards for his work, including the medal of freedom bestowed by then president George HW Bush in 1993, and the lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in 2003.

