Distributing Supplies, depicting a horse-drawn sled driving through a crowd with an American flag on display, and Relief Ship, showing a steamer coming into port, were on display in the White House in the 1960s as a sign of the thaw in relations with the Soviet Union following Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's visit in 1959.
"Today these works remain a symbol of more than a century of international relations between Russia and America. They serve as a reminder of both conflict and alliance, as well as a deeper sense of humanitarian kinship that exists without regard for political agenda," Sotheby's said.
"In Distributing Supplies, Aivazovsky depicts the delivery of provisions to his birthplace of Feodosiya, a port city on the Black Sea," while "The Relief Ship illustrates the celebrated arrival of an American ship at a Russian port," the auction house said.
The value of the two paintings had been estimated at $2-3 million.
A rare Faberge icon in a silver frame encrusted with jewels ($100,000-150,000) and an Imperial porcelain centerpiece ($3 million) once owned by the Dutch government also top the list of Russian works going under the hammer at the two-day auction, which opened earlier today.
Although Sotherby's is being cautious in its pre-sale estimates, it is expecting new records to be set. Last year Russian art sales reached a massive $190.9 million compared to $6.03 million in 2000.
The auction house will also sell paintings by other famous Russian artists, including Russian landscape painters Arkhip Kuindzhi, Ivan Shishkin, Andrei Bogolyubov and Vasili Polenov.
During the second day on Wednesday, contemporary Russian art will go under the hammer.
