Pavlova's ashes return to Russia

The ashes of Anna Pavlova, arguably Russia and the world's greatest ballerina, are finally going back to her homeland from a London cemetery where they have been on display since her death 70 years ago.

Harvey Thomas, of the London Cremation Company, which owns the Golders Green Crematorium where Pavlova's remains are held, said he would take the ashes, and those of her husband, Victor Dandre, to Moscow on March 13.

The two urns will be presented to Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery, the final resting place for some of Russia's most revered luminaries, including writer Nikolai Gogol and composer Sergei Prokofiev.

Pavlova moved to London in 1912 and died in 1931 in The Hague.