Archives » Monday, September 17, 2007
-
Owen Matthews
|
Sep 17, 2007 08:02 AM
If you are in Central London on Tuesday or Wednesday, be sure to look into Sotheby's on Bond Street. The art collection of the late Mtislav Rostropovich, considered one of the greatest cellists of the last century, and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya is on display. The 450-odd lot of paintings, ceramics and objects d'art were due to go under the hammer tomorrow, but the auction was canceled when Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov made a successful pre-emptive bid for the entire collection yesterday. Sotheby's says that the offer was "substantially higher than the highest pre-sale expectations" -- in other words, well over the 20 million pound catalogue valuation of the collection. Russian art sales at Sotheby's have risen twenty times since 2001; this year alone the London-based auction house has sold over $101 million worth of Russian art, with another major sale planned in London on November.
More
