The first charity gala dinner of the Russian Museum with the participation of Shristie's rescued about 160 thousand dollars in support of the permanent collection of contemporary Russian art

July 2, 2010 in the Marble Palace of the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg) took first charity gala dinner in support of a collection of contemporary art. Dinner was held with the participation of the auction house Christies. Admission called Black Squared, which were sold out, began with the exhibition of rare works , which were kept in the museum. The First Lady of Iceland Dorrit Mussayeff, chairman of Morgan Stanley in Russia and CIS Walid Chammah and director of the Russian museum Vladimir Gusev welcomed more than one hundred and thirty guests gathered in the beautiful White Hall, the Marble Palace. During the dinner was brought to an exclusive program of performances based on the works of Malevich. Evening's program was accompanied by the Mariinsky Theatre soloists.

main event of the evening was a charity auction led by the most famous auctioneer Christie's Hugh Edmidisa and a representative of Christie's Anastasia Volobuyeva. As part of the auction was presented to 18 lots, 16 of them - art works by contemporary Russian artists, and two unique lots - dinner at one of the palaces of the Russian Museum and a trip to London for the weekend, accompanied by experts Christie's.

For one night White Hall Marble Palace has become an international auction site, gathering customers from all over the world. Less than half an hour was generated almost 90 thousand dollars in initial general Estima in 36,000. In total, including funds received from ticket sales, managed to collect about 160 thousand dollars, which will focus on the development of the permanent collection of contemporary art of the Russian Museum.

evening auction was a success: it was sold 100 percent of lots. In the works of the artists who generously donated their work, set new price records. Top lot of the evening was a sheet Nikolai Smirnov (1938-2005) "Letter Repin", created in 1980, it lasted for a record sum of 16,000 dollars and got into a collection of buyers from the UK. In general, for both the work of the author (the second - "Card-2") has opened a real struggle. Unique lot - a trip for a weekend in London, accompanied by experts Christie's, visiting museums and galleries, and auction house Christie's, located on King Street, went to a buyer from Russia in 8000 dollars.

Rair Simonyan, chairman of Morgan Stanley Russia and the CIS, said: "Two years ago, Morgan Stanley decided to become a partner of the Russian Museum. During this time, we have created an international advisory board, and organized the first event to raise funds for the museum. We are confident that this will be a good start for our future common projects ».

Matthew Stephenson, head of Christie's in Russia concluded:" Being involved in this is a good thing for us to really enjoy . We are grateful to all the guests for their active participation in the auction. We hope that this auction so successful, a good start and become a traditional annual event ».

Source: press release Christie's