News Item: 00022

12th Jul 2007

Sale of Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya collection of Russian art

Source: http://www.sothebys.co.uk

Sotheby's London announced today that it will offer for sale The Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Collection of Russian Art on Wednesday, September 19, 2007. The sale is entirely devoted to fine and decorative Russian Art from the 18th to the 20th centuries that formed the contents of the Paris and London apartments of recently deceased internationally renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya, the famous Russian soprano. These works come to sale following a decision taken by the couple to auction their collection and relocate to Russia.

The unprecedented sale of their collection will be held in Sotheby's London salerooms and is estimated to realise in excess of £3 million. Commenting on their move to Paris and building their collection of Russian Art, Madame Vishnevskaya, said: "When we were forced to leave Russia in 1974 we had to abandon everything; all of our property was left behind in Russia. We left, quite literally, without a penny to our name. Everything we owned remained there. When we left - Rostropovich with a cello and Kuzya, a Newfoundland dog, and I with two suitcases and two children - we had to build our lives all over again from nothing and when in 1978 we were stripped of Russian citizenship, we bought the flat which we've lived in for all these years. The flat which we decided to turn into a Russian house is still there today."

The decision to sell the collection was a mutual one, taken by Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya together. "We wanted the precious items that we had collected with such love over the years to be obtained during our lifetime by real connoisseurs and people who loved Russian art and Russian antiquity. We hoped that these works of art would be acquired by people who love and appreciate them, people to whom these objects speak."