Martiros Saryan’s Poet. On the slopes of Aragats sold for record high 623,700 pounds

YEREVAN, November 27. / ARKA /. A painting by prominent Armenian artist Martiros Saryan "Poet. On the slopes of Aragats" was sold for a record 623.7 thousand pounds at Sotheby's in London on the first day of Russian art auction.

Executed circa 1906, The Poet is among the earliest works by Martiros Saryan ever to come to auction and was published in Apollon magazine in 1913. It was originally in the famous Moscow collection of Nikolai Ryabushinsky (1877-1951) –son of a millionaire, bon viveur and passionate collector. 

A painting by another Armenian artist Dmitry Nalbandian "Daisies" was bought for 175.3 thousand pounds.

Russian RIA Novosti reported that the Portrait of Praskovya Mamontova’ painted by Valentin Serov was sold at the auction for 1.2 million pounds, a record price for the artist. The painting’s preliminary estimate was 300-500 thousand pounds. This exceptionally rare work from a private collection was in a private collection ever since and was the most important portrait by this artist ever to have come to the market. Painted when the artist was just 22, it is one of Serov's earliest finished paintings and dates from the same year as his famous portrait of the sitter’s young cousin, Girl with Peaches (Portrait of V.S.Mamontova), 1887, now in The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. 

Transportation of the Wounded, one of the largest works by Vasily Vasilievich Vereshchagin was sold for 937,300 pounds. This magnificent military scene, inspired by the Russo-Turkish war, was exhibited widely in Europe and the United States in the 1880s. It was acquired by the New York collector and merchant Samuel Ullman at the sale of the artist’s works held in New York by the American Art Galleries in 1891, and has remained in private collections since then. The painting’s preliminary estimate was 800,000-1,200,000 pounds.  Today is the second day of the auction. -0-