The art collection of deceased cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and his widow Galina Vishnevskaya, worth about 3 million pounds ($6 million), is to be sold at Sotherby's auction house in London.

Mstislav Rostropovich, the ebullient master cellist who fought for the rights of Soviet-era dissidents and later triumphantly played Bach suites below the crumbling Berlin Wall, has died, The Associated Press reported on Friday quoting a statement by Rostropovich's spokeswoman. He was 80.

World famous Russian cellist and conductor, Mstislav Rostropovich, who appeared frail at his 80th birthday celebration last month, has been hospitalized in Moscow for the second time this year.

There was a time when one of the world's best-known cellists and conductors could never have imagined celebrating his birthday in Moscow, let alone at the Kremlin. But when Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich turns 80 today, the occasion will be marked in the Russian capital with a concert and gala dinner hosted by President Vladimir Putin.