Mstislav Rostropovich, From Beyond Grave, Continues Furtherance Of Russian and Slavic Cultural And Spiritual Renaissance

"An art collection belonging to the late Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich has been sold to a private buyer for substantially more than $40 million, Sotheby's auction house said Monday.

Sotheby's said the anonymous buyer intended to return the collection to Russia. An auction of the collection, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, was canceled.

The buyer's identity was expected to be revealed Tuesday in Moscow.

Sotheby's did not disclose the sale price, but said it was ''substantially higher'' than the pre-auction estimate of $40 million.

Rostropovich, who died in April at age 80, was considered one of the finest cellists of the 20th century and was a staunch opponent of Soviet-era repression.

He fled the Soviet Union in the early 1970s after sheltering the dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, settling in Paris with his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya.

The couple amassed one of the world's finest private collections of Russian art, including glassware, porcelain and works by leading painters such as Ilya Repin and Boris Grigoriev.

In a statement, Vishnevskaya's family said they were delighted the collection had been bought whole.

''It is especially meaningful for our family that the new owner will bring it to Russia,'' the statement said." ...

Associated Press "Rostropovich Art Fetches More Than $40M" September 17. 2007




















Composer Alexander Glazunov by painter Ilya Repin, 1887.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons. With thanks.

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The Russian Museum, Petersburg, Russian Federation