Elton John puts outfit up for auction

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - After performing a 90-minute concert before an invitation-only audience, Elton John put one of his outfits and the piano stool he used in the performance on the auction block to help raise funds for monuments in Russia's former imperial capital. The beige jacquard Versace suit with matching shoes and the stool brought $27,000 at the auction late Thursday after the concert at the 18th-century Catherine Palace in the village of Pushkin, just outside St. Petersburg. Admission to the concert in the gilded hall required a minimum donation of $1,500.

Among those in attendance were Boris Nemtsov, leader of the liberal Union of Right Forces party, and aluminum and oil tycoon Roman Abramovich. Proceeds from the concert are to be used for restoring crumbling monuments in St. Petersburg and building a new one to commemorate the late Nobel Prize-winning poet Joseph Brodsky.