LONDON.- Sotheby’s inaugural Evening Sale of Russian Art tonight exceeded all expectations and realised a total of £25,731,100 ($53,137,295), £2 million more than the pre-sale high estimate (pre-sale estimate £15.9-23.5). The auction got off to a remarkable start with the first three lots – triptych icons – all selling for well above their pre-sale high estimates, and the fourth lot offered, Konstantin Makovsky’s From the Everyday Life of the Boyars, set a new record for the artist at auction when it sold to a telephone bidder for £2,036,500, £1.3 million over its high estimate of £700,000. The sale also saw 12 new records achieved for Russian artists, 18 works sell for over $1 million and almost 70% of works sell in excess of their high estimates. The top selling work was the avant-garde masterpiece Bluebells by Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova, from the Schreiber Family Collection, which commanded £3,044,500.

Commenting on tonight’s sale, Jo Vickery, Senior Director and Head of Sotheby’s Russian Art department in London, said: “Tonight we have witnessed history in motion. The Russian art market has finally come of age and is now fully recognised on the international art market. What is even more astounding is the sense that this market is still evolving. With 12 world auction records for Russian artists alone in this sale, we can feel confident that the market remains in a state of active growth.”

The cover lot Still Life with Tray by Liubov Sergeevna Popova and Aristarkh Lentulov’s Town in Southern Russia both commanded £1,700,500 – the fourth highest price paid in this evening’s auction – and set new records for the artists at auction. The Cubo-Futurist collage, which is one of the finest compositions by Popova to remain in private hands, sold within the pre-sale estimate of £1.5-2 million, smashing the previous record for the artist by more than $1.8 million. Town in Southern Russia by Lentulov sold for £200,000 more than its pre-sale high of £1.5 million.

Seascapes by Russia’s most famous marine artist, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, performed well in tonight’s inaugural sale. The artist’s Wrath of the Seas sold for mid-estimate at £513,300, whilst his Ice on the Dnieper sold for £580,500, almost three times the high estimate of £200,000 for the work. The masterpieces by Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev also did exceptionally well, both selling for well in excess of their pre-sale high estimates. Yakovlev’s The Battle of the Warrior sold for £916,500 and his Still Life with Table commanded £894,100.

Two other works in tonight’s sale that performed well and achieved records for the artists include, Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich’s oil on canvas Himself Came, which brought £1,756,500 and Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky’s Wheat Reapers, which sold for £894,100. On the Veranda by Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin also did well, selling for £894,100 – almost £300,000 more than the pre-sale high estimate.