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Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Sotheby’s New York Russian Art Auction Brings $17,636,500

Sotheby’s New York auction of Important Russian Art brought $17,636,500, with five works selling for more than $1 million and three works exceeding $3 million.


Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova, Street in Moscow, 1909, titled, numbered and inscribed in Cyrillic (on the reverse), oil on canvas, 25 1/2 by 31 in., 65 by 79 cm. Photo: Sotheby’s.

The auction was led by Natalia Goncharova’s Street in Moscow, which sparked an intense competition between bidders both in the room and on the phone that propelled the work to achieve $6,354,500 – more than four times its high estimate of $1.5 million, and the new highest price for a painting in any Russian Art sale at Sotheby’s worldwide. The sale was also highlighted by works from two American institutions: Vasili Vasilievich Vereshchagin’s monumental Pearl Mosque at Delhi, on offer from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), brought $3,106,500 (est. $3/5 million), while a group of three works by Nicolai Fechin, on offer from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma, sold for $3,983,500 in total. The group was led by Fechin’s Bearing Away the Bride, which achieved $3,330,500 (est. $3/5 million).

Additional highlights from the autumn auction included Still Life in a Tavern in a Minor Key by Mikhail Fedorovich Larionov, which exceeded its high estimate of $900,000 in selling for $1,538,500. Like Goncharova’s Street in Moscow, this work represents one of the earliest contributions to the Russian avantgarde. Nicholas Roerich’s And We Continue Fishing, the fourth of six paintings in the artist’s Sancta series, brought $1,426,500 (est.$1.2/1.5 million). This allegorical series represents a spiritual journey, and it is unique within the artist’s oeuvre from the 1920s for its distinctively Russian setting and imagery.

Sale Results
*Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova, Street in Moscow, 1909, oil on canvas. $6,354,500 (£3,964,624)
*Nicolai Fechin, Bearing Away the Bride, 1908, oil on canvas. $3,330,500 (£2,077,926)
*Vasili Vasilievich Vereshchagin, Pearl Mosque at Delhi, 1876-79, oil on canvas. $3,106,500 (£1,938,171)
*Mikhail Fedorovich Larionov, Still Life in a Tavern in a Minor Key, circa 1909, oil on canvas. $1,538,500 (£959,883)
*Nicholas Roerich, And We Continue Fishing from the Series Sancta, 1922, tempera on canvas. $1,426,500 (£890,005)
*Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin, Evening Serenade, 1916, oil on canvas. $458,500 (£286,062)
*Nicolai Fechin, Temple Dancer, 1938, oil on canvas. $362,500 (£226,167)
*Pavel Fedorovich Tchelitchew, Anemones, 1932, oil on canvas. $302,500 (£188,732)
*Nicolai Fechin, Balinese Peasant Girl, oil on canvas. $290,500 (£181,245)
*Yuri Pavlovich Annenkov, Still Life with Strawberries, oil on canvas. $182,500 (£113,863)

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