Sotheby’s New York and London November Sales of Russian Art Realise $30.4 Million

LONDON.- The top-selling lot of the November Sales of Russian Art in London was Alexander Yakovlev’s 1926 oil on canvas The Kuli-Kuta Dance, Niamey, which sold for the within-estimate sum of £937,250 (Est. £800,000-1,000,000)

Two new artist records established for Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel with The Assyrian (lot 23, est. £30,000-50,000) and Igor Emmanuiovich Grabar with Delphiniums (lot 25, est. £150,000-200,000), each of which sold for the sum £181,250.

Combined, all five November Sales of Russian Art in New York and London established a solid sell-through-rate by lot of 64%

Discussing the results of Sotheby’s Russian Art Sales in London this November, Jo Vickery, Senior Director and Head of the Russian Art department, said: “With this sales series in London we have witnessed a healthy rebound in prices for 19th century paintings, notably for Bogoliubov’s ‘The Eve of the Celebration’ which brought £881,250 – more than double its presale low estimate – as well as Dubovsky’s ‘The Land’, which sold for £181,250, and Polenov’s ‘The Headquarters of the Ruschuksky Detachment’, which realised £97,250. We also saw particularly strong bidding for fine Russian Works of Art and Faberge today. Overall, the results achieved this week are solid and bring Sotheby’s global total for sales of Russian Art in 2010 to the strong sum of $82 million.”