Saturday 3 December 2011

Sotheby's Russian art evening auction brings £5.6m

On Monday Sotheby’s Important Russian Art auction which was exceptionally well-attended brought £5,597,000 (est. £5,755,000-8,415,000). The sale achieved sellthrough rates of 66.7% by lot and 74.6% by value, and established two new artist records for Alexander Golovin and Pavel Kovalevsky. 
  
The top-selling lot of this evening’s auction was Petr Konchalovsky’s exceptionally rare, pre-revolutionary painting 'Tatar Still Life', dated 1916. The painting saw competition from 5 bidders and realised the above-estimate sum of £914,850/$1,415,181 (est. £500,000-700,000). The painting first belonged to influential Polish art critic Waldemar George who presented the painting as a wedding gift to Louis Gautier-Chaumet, editor-in-chief of “La Presse" newspaper, where George served as art critic.


Commenting on the results of this evening’s auction this evening’s auction, Jo Vickery, Senior Director, Jo Vickery, Senior Director and Head of Sotheby’s and Head of Sotheby’s Russian Art Department in London, said:  


“We are very pleased with the results achieved for  tonight’s Important Russian Art Evening Sale, which was led by Konchalovsky’s Tatar Still Life, a fine example of 20th century Russian painting. Artworks that came from the collection of Arthur Ferdinand Hamann performed particularly well, with all of the works offered selling for a combined total of £2,264,900/$3,503,574. We set new artist records for Alexander Golovin and Pavel Kovalevsky, both of whose works came from that private collection, and I was particularly pleased to see such depth of bidding for 19th century Russian classics. Today’s market for Russian Art is more selective than ever before and it is evident that fine works, priced appropriately with exceptional provenance generate competitive bidding; as we saw on our top lots this evening.”
http://www.sothebys.com/en/departments/russian-art/overview.html

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