Moscow Auction House

History

2024: Sale of the painting "Galat Tower in the Moonlight" by Aivazovsky for ₽130 million

Ivan Aivazovsky's painting "Galat Tower in the Moonlight" was sold at the auction of the Moscow Auction House for ₽130 million, setting a record for the Russian art market. The completion of the transaction became known on December 18, 2024.

According to Izvestia, the auction took place on December 15, 2024, during which the works of domestic masters of the 16th-20th centuries totaling more than ₽300 million were implemented. Initially, the organizers predicted that the amount of sales would be about ₽100 million.

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Фото: en.wikipedia.org

Fyodor Svetlakov, co-founder of the Moscow Auction House, noted that this sale updated the previous record of the domestic art market for the work of Ivan Aivazovsky, set in February 2024, when his "Lunar Night" was sold for ₽92 million.

The painting is of particular value as a work of the early period of the artist's work, created in 1845. The first owner of the canvas was Emperor Nicholas I. In the 1950s, the work was in Norway, and in the 2010s it was auctioned by Sotheby's, after which it returned to Russia.

At the same auction, two works by Ilya Repin were sold: "Landscape with Birches" for ₽40 million and a sketch "Persian" for the film "Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom" for ₽50 million. The study depicts one of the daughters of the sea tsar, and the main canvas, created in Paris in 1876 by order of Alexander III, is stored in the State Russian Museum.

Among other significant lots are Vasily Vereshchagin's work "Church near Arkhangelsk" in 1894 for ₽12 million and the canvas of academician of painting Mikhail Nesterov "Landscape with a stone fence" for ₽4,5 million. Nesterov was a member of the Association of Traveling Exhibitions and the Association "World of Art."

Repin's "landscape with birches" was created under the impression of the picturesque area of ​ ​ the "summer cottage capital" of Siverskaya, where the artist rested and worked. This work, like other works sold at auction, demonstrates the growing interest of collectors in Russian painting of the 19th century.^[1]

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