LONDON.- As 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of Russian Art at Christie’s, the auction house celebrates the history of the department and looks back at the unparalleled success achieved with Russian masterpieces over the past fifty years. Unique in its genre, the Russian Art Department sources a wide variety of objects, from paintings and works on paper by leading artists from the 18th to the 21st centuries, to Russian Works of Art, including Fabergé, Imperial jewels, enamels, militaria and Soviet porcelain. Christie’s Russian Art sales, synonymous with distinguished provenance and fine craftsmanship, are held in London twice a year, in June and November.

Christie’s currently holds the record for the highest price ever paid for a Russian painting at auction, Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition, which sold for $85,812,500 in 2018, and for the most expensive Russian Work of Art sold in the category, the Rothschild Fabergé Egg which sold for US$18,576,214 in 2007.

Alexis de Tiesenhausen, International Head of Russian Art, Christie’s, comments: “Spanning several centuries of Russian history and art, our auctions have consistently offered the very best of Russian paintings and works of art to a growing pool of distinguished collectors. Having worked at Christie’s for the past 33 years, I have witnessed a blossoming marketplace for this category and am thrilled to celebrate the history of the department and all the incredible collections that have come through our doors. Over the past five decades, Christie’s has secured a reputation for exceptional expertise and this appeal has resulted in achieving record-breaking prices for leading artists such as Mashkov, Kustodiev, Goncharova and Serov. We are also particularly proud of our discoveries, such as the previously unknown collections of works by Maria Yakunchikova and Konstantin Somov that took the art world by storm. Constantly adapting to an ever-changing world, our passionate quest to source and sell museum-quality objects continues.”

THE HISTORY
Ties to Russia stretch back to the 18th century, when James Christie famously negotiated the sale of Sir Robert Walpole’s collection to Empress Catherine the Great. In 1934 Christie’s pioneered the Fabergé market with the first dedicated sale at the King Street premises. Russian Art has been a regular feature in Christie’s auction rooms ever since.

In 1969 the first Russian Department was established in Geneva and in 1970 the first auction of Russian Art was held at Christie’s. Landmark sales of Fabergé eggs and Soviet porcelain swiftly followed, with Christie’s handling the most prestigious collections of Russian Works of Art in the field, including Clore, Forbes, Greenfield, Kazan and Provatoroff. The beginning of the 21st century saw the £1 million mark broken for the first time, when in 2004 Ivan Aivazovsky’s St Isaac’s on a frosty day sold for £1.1 million.

THE ART
The department holds over 60 international records for Russian paintings, and has set auction records for some of the biggest names in Russian Art history, including Ilya Repin, Isaak Levitan and Vasily Vereshchagin, and avant-garde masters including Natalia Goncharova, Ilya Mashkov and Aristarkh Lentulov.

Christie’s long-standing professional relationships with collectors and institutions worldwide has led to some of the most memorable Russian Art sales in history, including The Somov Collection, The Collection of H.R.H. The Princess Margaret and The Collection of King George I of the Hellenes, and to being entrusted with the sale of their Russian Art by major institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center-Vassar College.
In 1990, Orest Kiprensky’s Portrait of Prince Evgenii Gagarin was purchased by the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg, marking the first sale to a Russian institution following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

THE TEAM
The Russian Art team boasts over 100 years of combined experience, with specialists based in London, New York and Paris.

The team is led by Alexis de Tiesenhausen, International Head of the department, and comprises: International Director Sarah Mansfield; Specialists and Co-Heads of Sale Aleksandra Babenko and Margo Oganesian; Nicolas Kaenzig, Specialist, based in Paris; and Head of the Department, based in New York, Izabela Grocholski.

With an emphasis on distinguished provenance and extensive research, the team is committed to seeking out the finest examples of Russian Art worldwide to bring to auction.