LONDON.- This evening, Sotheby’s Important Russian Art auction which was exceptionally well-attended brought £5,597,000/$8,657,999 (est. £5,755,000-8,415,000). The sale achieved sellthrough rates of 66.7% by lot and 74.6% by value, and established two new artist records for Alexander Golovin and Pavel Kovalevsky. The top-selling lot of this evening’s auction was Petr Konchalovsky’s exceptionally rare, pre-revolutionary painting Tatar Still Life, dated 1916. The painting saw competition from 5 bidders and realised the above-estimate sum of £914,850/$1,415,181 (est. £500,000-700,000). The painting first belonged to influential Polish art critic Waldemar George who presented the painting as a wedding gift to Louis Gautier-Chaumet, editor-in-chief of “La Presse” newspaper, where George served