LONDON, June 7. /TASS/. Total gains from a week of sales of the works of Russian art brought in $29.9 mln, as follows from the results of trading TASS received from the four auction houses that traditionally hold two weeks of sales of Russian/Soviet paintings, works of applied arts and icons every year.

Sotheby’s sold the two most expensive lots, both by the landmark 19th century Russian landscapist Isaak Levitan (b. 1860, d. 1900). ‘Summer’ went off for $ 1.1 mln, while ‘Overgrown Pond’ got $ 908,000.

Overall, Sotheby’s gained $ 15.6 mln on the sales. Customers purchased 78% lots on offer.

Christie’s gains stood at $ 6.5 mln and the percentage of the offers sold was also impressive, or 77% A sketch of Creon’s costume by Leon Bakst (b. 1866, d. 1924) for a production of Sophocles’ Antigone turned out to be the most expensive entry. It was sold for $ 487,000 after a bidding that lasted five minutes.

MacDougall’s international auction house also had successful trading in Russian paintings. It earnings totaled $ 5.8 million. ‘Quai de l’Amiral Courbet, Villefranche-sur-Mer’ by Konstantin Korovin (b. 1861, d. 1939) was purchased for $ 816,000, which is double the size of the initial estimate.

William MacDougall, Director, the auction director, explained for situation, saying: "As we expected, the excellent result confirms the steep recovery of the Russian art market, with good activity across all sectors and buying by both new clients and dealers."

Bonhams auction house finished the trading with a gain of $ 1.95 million. ‘Fox Hunt’ by Dmitri Stelletsky (b. 1875, d. 1947), the highlight of the auction and an embodiment of the neo-Russian style, went off at $ 333,000. The starting bid was smaller by a factor of three.

Darya Chervonenko, the director of Bonhams Russian department told TASS they were pleased with the situation, as the trading had been more animated than on previous occasions and the fact characterized party the overall situation on the market. She said customers had purchased 60% of the lots.