The antique week in London early in December brought the biggest takings. Three auction houses - Sotheby's, Christie's and MacDougall's - sold paintings to the sum exceeding $40 million. Compared with the last year, Sotheby's alone, which for the first time added New York Russian sale to its London Russian sale, more than doubled its total sale (about $24 million in 2003 and $50 million in 2004).
Before, merely ten works of art could top the $100,000 mark, and sales over one million were very rare and, as a rule, sensational (for instance, "A beauty" by Boris Kustodiev was sold in 2003 at Sotheby's for $1.2 million), whereas now there is a long list of Russian "millionaire" paintings. Moreover, two canvases have exceeded the two-million mark - "St. Isaac's Cathedral on a frosty day" by Ivan Aivazovsky ($2.3 million, Christie's) and "Sketch of a family portrait" by Ilya Repin ($2.3 million Christie's).
Meanwhile, despite the above-mentioned successes, all 2004 Russian art sold for $80 million was second after the only picture - "Boy with a pipe" by Pablo Picasso, which was sold for $104 million.
