LONDON, ENGLAND.- Sotheby’s sales of Russian art have this year already brought a combined total of £59.8 million, which is more than Sotheby’s entire annual turnover for Russian sales worldwide in 2005 - itself the highest total for a single year to date. Following on from the remarkable success of these sales, the upcoming Russian Sale on Tuesday, November 28, 2006 will include over 460 lots and is set to fetch in excess of £20 million.

The auction, which takes place the day after the sale of Russian Books, Maps and Photographs, features the largest section of Russian works of art, both in terms of range and quality, to be offered in a Russian Sale at Sotheby’s London and includes an extraordinary private collection of Fabergé, which is estimated at £1.1-£1.7 million. In addition, there will be more than 20 works by contemporary Russian artists, as well as pictures by many of Russia’s most important émigré artists, salon painters and Mir Iskusstva movement artists.

Pictures: Among the 19- and 20-century paintings included for sale, one of the most important works to be offered is by the 19-century Russian salon painter Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky (1839-1915). Portrait of the Artist’s Wife Maria Alexeevna Makovsky is one of two paintings from the property of the family of the artist in the sale which are completely fresh to the market, and is estimated at £200,000-£300,000. Makovsky, who was well-known for having developed a very distinctive style of portraiture, adopted elements from the schools of Briullov and Tropinin and successfully reworked then to create his own style – the salon portrait. His works incorporate both the formal and the intimate, and are highly decorative and dynamic, sharing a great similarity to the works of the French Impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The second work from the same collection, Portrait of the Artist’s Daughter Marina Makovsky, is also estimated at £200,000-£300,000. Both portraits show Makovsky’s talent at its best.

Highlighting the 20-century works in the sale is Reclining Nude by the émigré artist Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova (1884-1967), which she painted in 1930. From a private American collection, it is one of the highest value paintings in the sale, estimated at £500,000-£700,000. The female nude occupies an important place in the work of Serebriakova, and the artist often used her own daughter, Katya – featured in the painting – as her subject. Some of the subjects in her nudes appear ecstatic, whilst in others, such as this painting, they stare directly at the viewer. Eroticism is evident in her pre-revolutionary paintings, but the most erotic nude pictures of her entire oeuvre, were those exectuted in the 1920s and 1930s, when Reclining Nude was painted.

Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev’s (1887-1938) Three Women in a Box at the Theatre is another important highlight of the Pictures session and a masterpiece of late Mir Iskusstva art. Before Yakovlev’s travels in the Far East from 1917 to 1918, the theatre already occupied a central place in his early work. He was a member of the Mir Iskusstva exhibiting society from 1912 and many of its artists designed for the theatre, and had in turn worked for Diaghilev’s ballet russes in Paris. The Mir Iskusstva movement artists looked to the past and revived bygone historical eras in their art, both as a reaction against realism and to mine new sources of inspiration and design. This work has come from a French private collection and is one of the most striking from his series of Chinese Theatre compositions. It is estimated to fetch £280,000-£350,000.

Martiros Sergeevich Saryan (1880-1972), who studied under Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin at the Moscow School of Painting, was also a member of the Mir Iskusstva movement and is one of Armenia’s most important 20-century painters. Several of his pictures can be found in both major Russian and Armenian Museum collections and Street at Evening, which is one his finest works remaining in private hands, is also a work of museum quality. The picture was painted in Constantinople and is estimated at £200,000-£300,000.

The sale also feature works by Russia’s most famous contemporary artists, and is highlighted by No.7 From Kitchen Series, which is estimated at £100,000-£150,000 and was produced by one of the most influential artists to have emerged from the former Soviet Union, Ilya Kabakov (b. 1933). Kabakov often explored Soviet communal apartment life in his series of albums, paintings, and multimedia installations, and this particular painting comes from a series focused on the Soviet kitchen – the most important part of the communal apartment during the Soviet era. The worn-mug and the “Russian-Soviet” drab green colour of the board – the typical colour of the walls of Soviet communal interiors – exemplify some of the bleakness and dreariness of Soviet life. The painting also features ordinary phrases spoken by the inhabitants of one such communal apartment, and parodies the stylised handwriting found on the official Soviet documents that exerted control over the life of every Soviet person.

Lost Paradise: Diptypch from Nostalgic Socialist Realism Series, 1982 by Komar and Melamid (b. 1943 and b. 1945) is also another important highlight in the section and is estimated to fetch £80,000-£120,000. Komar and Melamid satirised official Soviet culture by transforming stereotypes of Soviet propaganda into a new contemporary artistic language and are widely known as the founders of the Sots Art movement of the 1970s.

Works of Art: The most important highlight of the works of art session is a magnificent pair of Imperial porcelain vases, period of Nicholas I (1825-1855), dated 1830, which has not been seen on the market for over 30 years and are estimated at £1,800,000-£2,500,000. The vases, which have come from the property of a European Collection, were presented by Tsar Nicholas I to Casimir Louis Victurnien Rochechouart, Duke de Montemart the French Ambassador to Russia from 1828 to 1833, and were not only viewed as indicators of the Tsar’s generosity but also as symbols of the great artistic and economic wealth of Russia.

The theme of decoration of the offered pair establishes a direct link between the donor Nicholas I and the recipient the Duke of Montemart, and reflects the close political alliance between Russia and France forged during the campaign against the Ottoman Empire. Respectively, the vases depict Grenadiers in the Throne Room of the Dowager Winter Palace and Tuileries Palace, and belong to a small number of vases decorated with trompe l’oeil malachite and finely painted military scenes. They are among the finest produced during the period of Nicholas I.

Also included for sale is an extremely fine and rare Imperial Russian porcelain coffee service, period of Alexander II (1855-1881), which is decorated with paintings after Jean-Baptiste Greuze, one of France’s most famous draftsmen and favourite of Catherine II. The service has come from a German private collection and is estimated to fetch £100,000-£150,000.

Highlighting the strong section of Fabergé, which includes over 90 pieces, is a remarkable private American collection that profiles the range of works produced by Fabergé’s workshop, and features five pieces with a combined low estimate of £1.1 million. The most important of which is a rare gold, diamond and guilloche enamel Imperial presentation snuff box, by the St. Petersburg workmaster Michael Perchin, which is estimated at £500,000-£700,000. It was presented by the Emperor Nicholas II to Léon Bourgeois (1851-1925), French politician statesman, who served as President of the Chamber of Deputies in Emile Loubet’s administration. The Cameral Office of the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty decided which presentati