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Accademia Fine Art Auction (1)
2012-07-13 12:34
What:
Accademia Fine Art Auction
Where:
Hôtel de Paris
When: Fri 27 to Sat 28 July 10am to 8pm (public view)
Auction: Sunday 29 July at 5.30pm
Web:
http://www.accademiafineart.com
The latest sale from Monaco's
Accademia auction house includes treasures from the Sultan of Brunei, made by the British jewellers Asprey, a Monaco private art collection made under the guidance of Professor Anton Luigi Laura, and a special focus on Russian art with a fine sketchbook by
Natalia Goncharova containing 21 watercolours of ballet costumes.
The Brunei collection is utterly outstanding, with a number of exquisite combinations of crystal, gold, enamel and abundant settings of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires. Typical is the unique butterfly box pictured below, which is expected to fetch between €140,000 and €180,000 at auction.
From the same collection comes a functioning terrestrial globe, its continents fashioned from 18ct gold and each capital from a single ruby. A chronometrical mechanism indicates the time as the clockwork globe sweeps around.
Of particular interest to buyers in both Monaco and Moscow is the 21-leaf sketchbook of Natalia Goncharova. The great-niece of Pushkin and a leading member of the Futurist movement, Goncharova collaborated with Diaghilev, Stravinsky and others on the work of the Ballets Russes - the celebrated dance company with which Monaco is most intimately associated, and whose centenary was celebrated here just two years ago.
The book is a catalogue of the costumes for the ballet 'On the Dnieper' (''
На Днепре'), scored in 1930 by Prokoviev for a performance by the Ballets Russes a year after the death of Diaghilev. The sketchbook, personally inscribed to Countess Piella Giustiniani Bandini, represents a unique view into the style and history of an extraordinary artistic collaboration, and is being auctioned with an estimate between €180,000 and €220,000.
In addition, the 265-lot auction includes a wealth of chinoiserie, Meissenware, and a number of excellent paintings both ancient and modern. Viacheslav Plotnikov's view of the Hotel de Paris from 1962 (below) is one of several pieces likely to attract Monaco buyers, in the price range of €2,500 to €3,500:
The pieces are being shown in the Salle Beaumarchais in the Hotel de Paris from 27 to 28 July, with the auction itself at 5.30pm on Sunday 29 July.