MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti) - A monument to Arthur Conan Doyle's world-famous protagonist, Sherlock Holmes, will soon be erected near the British embassy in Moscow, project organizers said Wednesday.

Yelena Korshunova, vice president of the non-profit foundation Cultural Dialogue/One World, told a news conference that the monument to detective Sherlock Holmes will be unveiled on April 27, against the backdrop of an international festival of crime movies.

The two-figure statue shows a pensive Holmes standing, pipe in hand, with his irreplaceable companion, Dr. Watson, looking up at him from a bench. It could bring a welcome change to Moscow's sculptural landscape, which is dominated by formal monuments to statesmen, often with a controversial legacy.

"A monument to a favorite literary or film character is another matter - it unites rather than divides," said Yevgeny Bunimovich, a member of the Moscow city legislature's monuments committee.

Cultural Dialogue is also planning to erect monuments to the Little Prince and Don Quixote in Moscow and to the Three Musketeers in St. Petersburg.

Six screen versions of Conan Doyle's novels have been made in Russia since 1979. The actor who appears in the title role, Vasily Livanov, last year received the Order of the British Empire for his portrayal of Britain's most famous literary detective.