September 19 in London at Sotheby's auction will be sold Russian art collection of Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya. Previously known that the auction will be approximately 350 lots.

September 19 in London at Sotheby's auction will be sold Russian art collection of Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya. Previously known that the auction will be about 350 lots, of which a substantial part of - paintings and graphics, and the rest - especially favorite singer, porcelain and objects of applied art.

According to Bloomberg.com , the decision to sell collection was taken jointly by the spouses during the lifetime of Rostropovich, who died on 27 April 2007. In September, at the bidding will be only part of the collection - mostly things of the London and Paris apartments.

details about the collection is known very little. But the preliminary statement is intriguing. In particular, Bloomberg quoted the words of Ivan Samarin, a specialist in Russian art, working in London: «This is the best collection of Russian art ever assembled outside of Russia».

The works of Russian art of XVIII-XX centuries were not removed from the country, and acquired by spouses after 1974, already abroad, after the forced emigration, in fact, the expulsion from the country (later, in 1978, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya were deprived of their nationality). So was the need to rebuild the Russian atmosphere of the Parisian house. After restructuring, opened the way home, Russia has no need to recreate, and now Vishnevskaya reported on the decision to move to Russia permanently.

already know that the total estimeyt selected to trading items defined at the level of 7.2 million pounds on the top border. The preliminary list of lots included 15 paintings by Ivan Repin paintings by Ivan Bilibin. Pearl auction organizers tend to assume gigantic, three by three meters, canvas Nicholas Roerich «Treasure Angels» 1905. This thing is interesting, with history, with a deep philosophical concept. In 1909, the panel shown in Menshikovskom Palace in St. Petersburg, then accompanied him to the fate of a successful exhibition in the European capitals and the United States. At the core of the plot - the mythical stone of good and evil, the cornerstone of the universe, which is guarded by angels. In 1998 the wife purchased «Treasure Angels» at Sotheby's for 287.5 thousand pounds. Today, experts estimate it to 0,8-1,2 million pounds. And it seems to be too conservative estimeyt. D not be surprised if the price will exceed 2.5 million pounds.

For the painting by Ivan Bilibin «Hunting» obyavlna expert estimate 120-180 thousand pounds.

At the auction also will work by Alexander Benois (including graphic design sketch to the ballet performances «Apollo and Daphne» estimated by experts at home in 15-20 thousand pounds).

House Sotheby's issued a special press release on the upcoming bidding on 19 September. A detailed list of lots has not yet been published and there is no online catalog - so the plot continues, and загадывать much ahead of the interesting, yet difficult.

For many years, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya collection helped in the formation of the painter Sergei Yesayan. This name is well known to those who are interested in creativity Sixties. One of the early works Yesayan could be seen at the first auction of contemporary Russian art at Sotheby's. 15 February 2007 tempera «Dinner priests», 1964, which was exhibited in 1965 at «personalke» at the Institute for Physical Problems Kapitza, sold for 24 thousand pounds. The artist emigrated to France in 1979. In 2002, the Marble Palace Russian Museum was a great exhibition of his work, which was represented by a specially came Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya.

Source: www.bloomberg.com , www.sothebys.com