Recap: `Beetle' Fetches Record 2.9 Million Pounds at Russian Art Sale, Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

According to Bloomberg News-- Ilya Kabakov's 1982 painting, ``Beetle,'' sold for 2.93 million pounds ($5.84 million) last night at Phillips de Pury & Co. in London, setting an auction record for Russian postwar art.

The 2.3 meter-by-1.5 meter (7.5 feet-by-4.9 feet) wood panel, showing a beetle on a leaf in enamel paint, had a top presale estimate of 1.8 million pounds and came from a European collection of Soviet non-conformist art. The lot went to Pilar Ordovas, head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's International, according to people at the sale. Ordovas was not available to say whether she bid on behalf of a client.

``Kabakov is a top international postwar artist who now commands the same prices as other major international artists,'' said William MacDougall, director of MacDougall Arts Ltd., a London auction house of Russian art.

About 87 percent of the collection's 39 lots sold for 6.5 million pounds on a top presale estimate of 4.77 million pounds. Phillips said the auction would benefit children with AIDS.

Kabakov, 74, is a founder of the Moscow conceptualist movement. He left the Soviet Union in 1988, and is now a U.S. citizen, residing on Long Island, New York. The previous postwar Russian record was his oil-on-canvas, ``La Chambre de Luxe'' (1981), which sold for 2 million pounds in June at Phillips in London, beating its high estimate of 600,000 pounds.

After the Russian sale, Phillips held an auction of postwar international art. ``Beetle'' held on to beat works by Richard Prince, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Andy Warhol.

The international sale's top lot, Prince's ``Surfing Nurse,'' sold for 2.15 million pounds, beating its top estimate of 2 million pounds.

Communist Glory

The Russian sale's second-most-expensive lot, Erik Bulatov's ``Glory to the Communist Party'' (1975), sold for 1.08 million pounds on a top estimate of 700,000 pounds, a record for the artist at auction. The painting is a mocking tribute to Soviet communist propaganda and features huge red Cyrillic letters that spell the title of the work.

``Most of the artworks in this auction tonight were bought by Russians, some active in the room and others on the phones,'' said MacDougall, who attended the auction.

The third-most-expensive lot, Oleg Vassiliev's ``Variations on the Theme of the Ogonyok Magazine Cover'' (1980), sold for 356,000 pounds on a top estimate of 120,000 pounds, also a record for the artist at auction.

In total, eight of the top 10 lots were paintings by Kabakov, Bulatov and Vassiliev. The three men were childhood friends and studied art as teenagers.

Later they became professional illustrators of children's books, and after work they secretly pioneered the Moscow conceptualist movement, careful to avoid the strict Soviet censorship of non-conformist art.