  We present the results of the blazar 3C 345 monitoring in Johnson-Cousins
BVRI bands for the period 1996 - 2006. We have collected 29 V and 43 R data
points for this period; the BI light curves contain a few measurements only.
The accuracy of our photometry is not better than 0.03 mag in the VR bands. The
total amplitude of the variability obtained from our data is 2.06 mag in the V
band and 2.25 mag in the R one. 3C 345 showed periods of flaring activity
during 1998/99 and 2001: a maximum of the blazar brightness was detected in
2001 February - 15.345 mag in the V band and 14.944 mag in the R one. We
confirm that during brighter stages 3C 345 becomes redder; for higher fluxes
the colour index seems to be less dependent on the magnitude. The intra-night
monitoring of 3C 345 in three consecutive nights in 2001 August revealed no
significant intra-night variability; 3C 345 did not show evident flux changes
over timescales of weeks around the period of the intra-night monitoring. This
result supports the existing facts that intra-night variability is correlated
with rapid flux changes rather than with specific flux levels.
