Russian art by Fechin, Roerich take centre stage at Sotheby's

KOLKATA: Russian art takes centre stage at London's leading auction houses next week. Sotheby's sales will include a wealth of rare material (including the finest pair of Imperial vases ever to appear on the market), as well as an entirely new sale - "Contemporary East" -the first-ever auction dedicated to contemporary art from Russia and Eastern Europe.

Sotheby's sale of Important Russian Art on coming Monday evening includes works by Fechin, Roerich and Vereshchagin and other key artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

In a recent development, two major works from that sale - by Robert Falk and Petr Konchalovsky - have been sold privately ahead of the auction. While Sotheby's cannot disclose the price for the painting by Falk, the sum paid was well in excess of the top estimate on the work, and many times the existing auction record for the artist. The price paid for the Konchalovsky is some four times higher than the current auction record. Both works will be on public view at Sotheby's from Friday, alongside the other works in the sales.