Harlequin by A. Yakovlev was a top bid of Russian Art Week in Sotheby's

Sotheby's auction house earnings reached almost 12 million US dollars after the traditional Russian Art Week held on June 5 in London, TASS reports.

The most valuable bid of the past auction was a masterpiece by Alexander Yakovlev titled Harlequin painted back in 1922. The painting reflects a topic of theatre as the central theme in the career of the Russian painter. An unknown buyer paid about one million US Dollars for this artwork. The eventual price of the painting exceeded the estimated price by 4 times.

No one of the main bids found its buyer yet. The painting by the Russian avant-gardist Kazimir Malevich was believed to be one of the most interesting pieces of art of the Russian Week. The initial price of Mysteries of Seduction water-colored painting with the portrait of Ivan Klyun on the reverse side amounted to almost half a million US dollars.

Decorative applied arts’ auction brought around 3 million US dollars to Sotheby's.

Major auction houses arrange the Russian Art Auction Weeks twice a year. The largest auction houses such as Christie's, MacDougall's and Bonham take part in them.

Russkiy Mir