A large private collection of works by famous Russian watercolor artist Alexander Benois has been sold at a Sotheby's auction in London for almost 2 million British pounds ($3 mln).
The auction was held on Tuesday as part of the Russian Art Sale Series.
The 127-lot collection, comprising ballet, opera set and costume designs, watercolor views of Russia, France and Italy, book illustrations, sketchbooks, and portraits of the artist’s family was the largest collection of works by Benois to be offered for sale in recent history.
“Set Design for Le Rossignol, 1914” with an estimate of 50,000 British pounds ($80,000) fetched over 235,000 British pounds ($367,000), becoming the top lot of the auction.
Sabina Tringalas, Deputy Director and Specialist in the Russian Art Department at Sotheby's auction house, said on Tuesday that the results of the auction, which doubled the estimate, showed collectors’ interest toward fresh-to-the-market works.
Alexander Benois was a Russian painter, stage designer and art historian born into a family of architects with French origins. In 1901, Benois was named stage director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. In the 1910s, he worked as a stage designer for the Russian Seasons (or Ballets Russes) – a legendary ballet company set up by Russian ballet impresario Sergey Dyagilev.
