Georgian Paintings Sold at Sotheby’s

LONDON – Two pieces of famous Georgian painters Lado Gudiashvili and Niko Pirosmani were sold Tuesday at an auction held by Sotheby’s, one of the world’s largest art dealers, for a 700,000 GBP (2,168,924 GEL).

Sotheby’s opened the bidding for Pirosmani’s “Roe Deer Drinking from a Stream” with starting price of 150,000 GBP (464,769 GEL). The painting finally sold for a closing price of 629,000 GBP (1,948,933 GEL).

A second painting by Gudiashvili, a portrait of Pirosmani known as “Our Niko”, sold for 75,000 GBP (232,384 GEL) after opening with a bidding price of 4,000 GBP (12,393 GEL).

Georgia’s billionaire oligarch and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili holds the record for having paid the most for a Pirosmani painting.

In June 2015, he bought Pirosmani’s “Arsenal Hill at Night” for USD 1,486,100 (3,161,380 GEL) at an auction held by well-known dealer Christie’s and donated it to the Georgian National Museum.

Sotheby’s noted that the painters in question were Georgian, but their works were sold as part of the auction house’s Russian collection.

Georgia’s Minister of Culture and Monument Protection, in collaboration with the Georgian National Museum, are negotiating with the world’s top auction houses to transfer Georgian pieces of art to their European section or to create a separate section dedicated to the South Caucasus nation.

By Eka Karsaulidze 

Edited by Nicholas Waller