Recommended event: Russian Week in London, at MacDougall’s

The white lady in the middle seemed to be craning her neck
 to catch a glimpse of the great work too

Every year towards the end of May the three great London art auction houses that deal in Russian art hold their main annual sales. It is known as Russian Week.
     I cannot speak for the other two, but I know a bit about MacDougall’s because it is the only one that advertises viewings in Moscow of the works on sale (and in Kiev, where there are, apparently, almost as many billionaires per head of the population as here). They will be auctioning many fine paintings, including the one I showed in the post on 18 April, Ivan Ivanovsky’s depiction of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, one of the many he painted of the city on the water. I reproduce to the right of this my photograph of two people looking at this amazing work—even more striking, of course, in real life than in the catalogue—which I took at the private viewing which was held in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral art annexe last month.
     You might not be in London at the end of May, but if you are, and are interested in Russian art, you should go and see what MacDougall’s have to offer. Better still, if you have £2 million burning a hole in your pocket, you should have a word with William MacDougall, the civilised Anglo-Scottish but Moscow-resident хозяин, who will explain to you in seductively smooth terms how you can convert your money into an investment-grade visual asset. Personal service is, so far as I can see, why MacDougall’s, though by far the youngest of the world’s Russian-specialist art auction houses, is the fastest growing. For further details see their website.