«Russian Week» in London came to an end. Yesterday the auction house Christie's held the last auction of Russian art, which could acquire valuable Russian books and manuscripts. Of the 132 lots were sold before the 85, ie 64 per cent. Total revenues amounted to 703.46 thousand pounds (1081 million dollars).

Top-lot auction has become a very rare book «Alexander III - Description of the Holy Coronation of Their Imperial Majesties the Emperor Alexander Tretyago Sovereign and Empress Maria Feodorovna Gosudaryni All Russia», published in St. Petersburg in 1883 specifically for members of the imperial family and dignitaries who arrived to Moscow for the coronation. It was sold for 73.25 thousand pounds, which was higher estimeyta to 50-70 thousand.

For the complete set of 11 color lithographs Эля Lisitsky «KHAD Gadya» (Kiev: Kultur-League, 1919), the buyer also was willing to pay more than the maximum assessed value (28-35 thousand pounds) - 55,25 thousand pounds. This lot is a section of rarities, since it was released just 75 copies, and many of them were destroyed.

In the third place in the list of top lots was a book Nikodim Pavlovich Kondakov «History and monuments of Byzantine enamel» (Frankfurt: August Osterrit, 1892), which went under the hammer for 49.25 thousand pounds (estimeyt 22-30 thousand pounds).

It should be the first book edition of «Eugene Onegin» (St. Petersburg: Alexander Smirdin, 1833), get a buyer for thousands of pounds 43.25 (estimeyt 20-30 thousand).

closes the top five most expensive lots for the original layout of the publication «Theatrical layouts» (Paris, 1930), made Alexandra Exter , the value of which, as in all the above cases was higher than in the 28-35 estimeyta thousands and thousands of 39.65 pounds.

Sven Becker, an expert auction house Christie's for the valuable Russian books and manuscripts, praised the results of the auction so: «Successful struggle for lots submitted in this category, resulted in some lots went under the hammer for amounts many times greater than their initial estimeyty. For example, a collection of lithographs by Konstantin pirated «Russian troops» (lot number 77), previously estimated at 2,5-3,5 thousand pounds, was sold for 25 thousand pounds, thus exceeding its estimeyt 10 times ».

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Sources: Press Releases Christie's, artinvestment.ru