Sotheby’s raised ₤20.2 million ($39.3 million) from a sale of Russian art in London yesterday, as buyers snapped up paintings, porcelain and Faberge works including an imperial snuffbox, The Bloomberg News reports.The proceeds fell in the middle of Sotheby’s presale estimate of between 16.5 million pounds and ₤25 million. About 68 percent of 438 lots were sold, with imperial vases, Faberge pieces and Russian emigre paintings proving the most popular items.

“Buyers are clearly looking for pieces of superior quality and rarity with good provenance and are prepared to bid extremely competitively to acquire such works,” said Jo Vickery, head of Russian art at Sotheby’s. More than half the lots sold topped their presale estimates, Vickery said.

Sotheby’s leads the Russian art market, reporting total sales in 2005 of $102 million, more than double its 2004 figure. Its total for 2006 so far is $149 million.

Christie’s International reported global Russian sales in 2005 of $40.7 million, up 77 percent from 2004.

Russia, the world’s second-biggest oil exporter, is in its seventh year of economic growth, fueled partly by high prices for oil, gas and metals. The economy will expand more than 6 percent this year and next, the government predicts.

Russians or Russian emigres made up 70 percent to 80 percent of yesterday’s 230 registered buyers, Vickery at Sotheby’s said. Bidders included Vladimir Voronchenko and Andrei Ruzhnikov, directors of Aurora Fine Art Investments, a Russian art-investment fund majority-owned by oil-and-mining billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.

Aurora declined to comment on the sale.

The lot fetching the single highest bid was a pair of porcelain vases made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg and dating from 1830, the period of Czar Nicholas I (1825-1855). The pieces, from a European collection, sold to an anonymous bidder on the phone for ₤2.25 million, compared with a presale high estimate of ₤2.5 million.

The same buyer scooped up another imperial vase for ₤557,000, near its high estimate of ₤600,000.

The top seller among Sotheby’s selection of more than 90 Faberge works was an imperial snuffbox of gold, diamond and enamel crafted by Michael Perchin. Consigned by an American collector, it went to a U.S. buyer for ₤926,000, above the high estimate of 700,000 pounds.

Sotheby’s top painting of the day was “Three Women in a Box at the Theater,” a 1918 oil by emigre artist Alexander Yakovlev (1887-1938). Wild bidding pushed it to ₤1 million, a record for the artist at auction and almost triple its high estimate of ₤350,000.

“Reclining Nude,” 1930, by Zinaida Serebriakova (1884-1967), sold for ₤881,600, an auction record for the painter and above the high estimate of ₤700,000.

“Rest on the Way From Kiev,” 1888, by Vladimir Makovsky (1846-1920), sold for ₤624,000, compared with a high estimate of ₤350,000. This touching genre painting depicts a young Ukrainian woman offering hospitality to a monk returning from a pilgrimage.

“The Survivors,” 1895, by prolific seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900), sold for ₤568,000, below its high estimate of ₤700,000.

Lots that didn’t sell included “Fete Galante” by Nikolai Milioti (1874-1962) and “Pinetrees and Birches” by Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964). The presale range for both was ₤400,000 to ₤600,000.

“Good things went for good prices,” said Mark Schaffer, a director at A La Vieille Russie, a New York gallery specializing in Russian decorative art and Faberge pieces. Unsold lots would have fared better had their presale estimates had been lower, Schaffer said.

Soviet porcelain plates from the 1920s, widely valued for their avant-garde designs, continued to prove popular with Russian buyers. A private Australian collection of 15 plates was sold off piece by piece, raising a total of ₤312,600, almost double the high estimate for the set.

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