On 14th April 2024, a collection of 43 watercolors, painted by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, sold at a Moscow auction for 60 million rubles [$640.000 USD] – which is double their estimated value.

For the first time, a collection on this scale of the grand duchess’s works went under the hammer at the Moscow Auction House. The total value of the collection was estimated at 30 million rubles [$325,000 USD]. The authenticity of each work was confirmed by art historians and experts of the Tretyakov National Research Institute in Moscow.

It was hoped that the entire collection would be purchased by one of Russia’s wealthy oligarchs or a corporation and donated to a museum, however, most of the watercolours were snapped up by private collectors.

During the auction, several records were set for Olga Alexandrovna’s works. One of her watercolor’s “From the Service” of the 1920s and 1930s” sold for 7 million rubles [$74,500 USD], while a second watercolour “Landscape of a Provincial Town” sold for 3.1 million rubles [$33,000 USD].

Prices such as this will most certainly increase demand for Olga’s paintings, as well as increase their price, when they are offered to the art market, both in Russia and the West.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960) painted more than 2,000 watercolours during her lifetime. She was 78-years-old, when she died in in Toronto, Canada, she was the last Grand Duchess of Russia.

© Paul Gilbert. 15 April 2024