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                <p>KRASNOYARSK, Russia (Reuters) – A Russian artist in Siberia has spent a small personal fortune on over a thousand pearls for a religious painting he has made for  Britain's Queen Elizabeth.</p>
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Clad in embroidered robes, Adam and Eve sit in thrones on a suspended Garden of Eden in Anatoly Pastyrev's painting, which is crowned by a Russian Orthodox icon and pearl-encrusted throughout.</p>
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"The British monarchy in particular has been the bastion of modern civilization which has centuries-old traditions coming from Christianity," Pastyrev told Reuters on Sunday at his home in the taiga forest encircling Krasnoyarsk, some 3,300 km (2,000 miles) east of Moscow.</p>
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Pastyrev now wants to give the painting, called "Glorification of the Lord," to the British monarch as a tribute to her title as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.</p>
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The bulldozer operator-turned-artist spent months working on the painting, which has 1,360 natural pearls he bought in Moscow for the handsome sum of 500,000 roubles (10,947 pounds).</p>
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"The British royal court is the oldest, most powerful and most influential," said Pastyrev, 57, who was a fervent communist in Soviet days.</p>
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He is now looking for a way to give the painting -- which measures one meter (yard) by 1.4 metres long and is pearl-encrusted along its outline, throughout the garden and on the bubble-like clouds -- to Buckingham Palace as a gift.</p>
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But Pastyrev wants to wait while the "heat" surrounding Prince William's marriage to Kate Middleton on April 29 dies down before attempting to get his artwork to the British monarch.</p>
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"I am thrilled by this event... I have nothing but respect for the young Prince William," he said.</p>
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(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman, editing by Paul Casciato)</p>
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