Russian Art Auctions in New York

As a break from politics, Monday's Kommersant reports of Russian art auctions in Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses in New York. The two renowned auction houses sold over $70 million dollars worth of paintings ($50mln for Sotheby's and $20 for Christie's). The painting that was expected to yield the most cash was Vasili Vershagin's "Solomon's Wall" fetched $3.6 million from an unnamed Russian collector. The painting was first acquired by a wealthy American businessman and senator, George Hearst.

However, Sotheby's struck gold with its $4.3 million sale of Mikhail Nesterov's "Vision of St. Sergius When a Child" (pictured below). Reuters also reports that this third-annual Russian art sale for Sotheby's follows "in the footsteps of last year's sale, which sold for a record-breaking $46.7 million in Russian art in New York".