Sold without the Gavel
// No Sotheby's auction for Rostropovich Collection
Alisher Usmanov bought the entire collection
The auction of Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya's collection of Russian art, scheduled to take place at Sotheby's in London today, has been cancelled. The entire collection, consisting of 450 lots and estimated to be worth $26-40 million, has been purchased by businessman, co-owner of Gazmetall and owner of Kommersant Publishing House Alisher Usmanov, who intends to return the collection to Russia.
Rumors were heard that a Russian buyer wanted to obtain the entire collection, which was assembled by Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya after their forced emigration. But one of the heads of Sotheby's, Lord Mark Poltimore, told Kommersant yesterday when asked directly about the collection that “At the present moment there are no changes and the auction should take place on the appointed day.”
At that “present moment,” negotiations were underway between the buyer and seller (Galina Vishnevskaya and her daughter) on the price of the deal. By noon on Monday, the fate of the collection, which includes several true masterpieces of Russian art, was decided. Worker dashed into the exhibition hall at Sotheby's in London and hung notices announcing that the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya collection had been purchased privately, no auction would take place and the new owner plans to take the collection back to Russia.
The news took those in the hall by surprise. There were a number of Russians there, and most of the main art dealers and most of the main art dealers who do business with Sotheby's and Christie's could be met on New Bond Street at the time. Clearly, the auction would have been a success if it had taken place. The disappointment was plain to see.
Sotheby's Russia and CIS head Mikhail Kamensky insisted on Sunday that the auction would take place. He strenuously denied the rumors that Usmanov was buying the whole collection. He explained to the same Kommersant correspondent yesterday that Vishnevskaya made her final decision on Monday morning. “For two and a half months, various Russian businessmen have been contacting us with offers to buy the collection. But far from all of them talked about returning the collection to Russia and not all of them wanted to buy the entire collection,” Kamensky said. “On Friday evening, an offer was received that, in spite of it unexpectedness, suited Galina Vishnevskaya, especially that the collection would be taken to Russia and given to the state. Therefore, she exercised her right to take the collection out of auction.”
Kamensky noted that “the offer was made with the support and under the guarantee of the government of the Russian Federation, which played a decisive role for Vishnevskaya.”
When asked how Sotheby's would explain the sudden cancellation to clients coming for the auction, which was to take place today, Kamensky said that “The owner is free to do what he pleases with his collection up to the time of the auction. The pre-auction exhibition of the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya collection will be extended, so everyone who come can see the collection.”
Alexis de Tiesenhausen, head of the Russian department at Christie's, commented on the clients coming to London to see only works they had intended to purchase. “It rarely happens,” he noted. “It seems that several things of Bolivar's were taken out of auction about 20 years ago at the request of the government of Venezuela, but not whole lots! Of course, the purchaser should be happy. The items in the collection are splendid – Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich's Serov and Repin were bought from us at one time, by the way. But you have to be cautious if you want to have good relations with collectors in the long term.”
This is not the first time such a situation has come up at Sotheby's. In 2004, Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg bought the Forbes family's entire of Faberge eggs. Viktor Vekselberg's representative Andrey Shtorkh pointed out to Kommersant, however, that “An agreement was reached between out lawyers and the lawyers for the Forbes family not a day before the date of the auction, but a month before.”
Usmanov commented for Kommersant that “I bought that collection because I thought it necessary to preserve the collection whole, since nothing like it will ever be seen again. Certain not with that quality. My second goal was the return of that major collection of Russian art to Russia. That was what helped us convince Sotheby's to sell the collection in a single lot. I certainly don't intend to keep the collection. It fate of the works is being decided my museum workers. They are deciding which museum, whether whole or in part, and so on. It's work for professionals.” When asked if he had a favorite work from the collection, Usmanov answered “The draft for Alexander Ivanov's The Appearance of Christ before the People, the works of Grabar and Roerich and the porcelain.”
This is not the first time Usmanov has brought Russia's cultural heritage back to it. He recently bought the rights to a collection of classic Soyuzmultfilm cartoons from an American company. Usmanov explained to a Kommersant correspondent that it was his civic position. “If it is possible to return something that is of value for Russia, the chance can't be lost. We were able in three days to return something that had long been lost. Higher powers helped us.” When asked if those higher powers were the Russian government, Usmanov replied with annoyance, “You know, I want you to write this: In our country, they even envy good deeds. No one gave me any orders. I don't even want to talk about it. There is no need to disparage my civic position, because I do what I can for my country and will continue to.”
The Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya collection was assembled between the late 1970s and the early 2000s and it concentrates on leading works of Russian art. The collection has a very distinct character. It is a collection of imperial Russian art, collected by the musical couple to create a “Russian home” away from home. Every item is accompanied by a tag decorated with a golden two-headed eagle. Among the 450 lots of the collection are indisputable masterpieces. For instance, the enormous panel The Treasure of Angels by Nikolay Roerich (estimated at $1.6-2.4 million), which was commissioned by Princess Tenisheva for her family chapel in Talashkino, later hung in the Roerich Museum in New York. Boris Grigoryev included his well-known Faces of Russia ($2.4-3 million) in all of his exhibitions. Karl Bryullov's Portrait of Avrora Demidova ($1.6-2.4 million) is unlike anything in Russia. The Tretyakov Gallery tried to buy it ten years ago, but was outbid by Vishnevskaya. The Portrait of Praskovya Bestuzheva by Boris Borovikovsky ($815,000-1.2 million) is the subject of an article by collector and eminent Pushkin expert Ilya Zilbershtein, founder of the Museum of Personal Collections in Moscow. In addition, there is a collection of porcelain of incredible quality, mainly from the Imperial Factory, and glass that is a museum in and of itself. There were offers on all the lots of the collection. Therefore, the auction would most likely have brought no less than the maximum estimate of $40 million, and probably more.
The party dedicated to the sensational sale was not cancelled last night. Russian collectors who traveled to London to buy works and got nothing attended wearing black mourning ribbons on their sleeves.
&“A Sum Many Time Higher Than All Expectations”
Joanna Vickery, head of the Russian department of Sotheby's in London, shared her comments with Kommersant.
“Are you disappointed the auction did not take place?”
“No. I am very glad the collection remained whole, since it's already existed for 30 years. And I'm glad that it will be accessible – the new owner has plans to exhibit it in Russia. It also seems important to me that the name of the great musicians will now be even more connected with art.”
“This situation won't harm the auction house?”
“On the contrary. it's very pleasant that the collection attracted so much interest.”
“What is the sum of the deal?”
“It's not being released. The only thing I can say is that the sum is many time higher than all expectations.”
The most expensive items in the Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya collection
| Place | Creator | Work | Estimate ($) |
|---|
| 1 | Boris Grigoryev (1886-1939) | Faces of Russia (1917-1918) | 3.05-4.08 million |
| 2 | Valentin Serov (1865-1911) | Portrait of Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov (1909) | 1.63-3.05 million |
| 3 | Nikolay Roerich (1874-1947) | Treasure of the Angels (1905) | 1.6-2.4 million |
| 4 | Karl Bryullov (1799-1852) | Portrait of Avrora Demidova (1836) | 1.63-2.44 million |
| 5 | Alexey Venetsianov (1780-1847) | First Steps (Peasant Woman with Child) (1839) | 1.02-2.04 million |
| 6 | Alexander Ivanov (1806-1858) | Study of the head of an old man for The Appearance of Christ before the People | 1.02-2.04 million |
| 7 | Boris Grigoryev (1886-1939) | Portrait of Petr Baksheev in the role of Vaska Pepel in Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths (1920) | 1.03-1.43 million |
| 8 | Vladimir Borovikovsky (1757-1825) | Portrait of Praskovya Mikhailovna Bestuzheva (1806) | 800,000-1.2 million |
| 9 | Collection of porcelain items from the Orlovsky Service | Imperial Porcelain Factory (1760s) | 715,000-1.2 million |
| 10 | Ilya Repin (1844-1930) | Portrait of Kornei Chukovsky (1910) | 610,000-1.2 million |
Tatyana Markina, London; Maiya Stravinskaya
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 18, 2007
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