Rowan Berries on Blue* – Petr Konchalovsky 1947

Last year, Art Kapital, an auction house specializing in 19th and 20th century Russian and Ukrainian art opened in Kiev, Ukraine. Already it is making a name for itself in the world’s second largest Russian art market after Moscow. Alexander Tabalov, director of the auction house, has been collecting art for more than a decade. He has been a regular at Sotheby’s and Christie’s Russian art sales since 1999. “We want Art Kapital to be a serious, full-fledged auction house,” Tabalov told Bloomberg News last month. Art Kapital is well on its way. At Sotheby’s April auction last year in New York, Art Kapital’s general director walked away with several works, including the auction’s two top lots: “Vision of St. Sergius, When a Child” by Mikhail Nesterov, and Konstantin Makovsky’s “Happy Arcadia.” Tabalov now has a collection of over 200 paintings, including work by Issac Levitan, Ilya Repin, Konstantin Korovin, Petr Konchalovsky, and Constantin Somov.

Link to an article on Art Kapital’s most recent auction at The Art Newspaper.

*This painting was the top lot in Art Kapital’s auction last December. It sold for $506,000