MacDougall’s because 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 Ivan Ivanovsky’s depiction of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, one of the many he painted of the city on the water. It is reproduced to the left of this photograph of two people looking at this amazing work—even more striking, of course, in real life than in the catalogue in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral art annexe.
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.
