LONDON.- Sothebys Important Russian Art auction, the first of our Summer sales of Russian Art this week, tonight realised a total of £10,448,450 ($15,079,203) almost reaching the pre-sale top estimate (est. £7,730,000-11,320,000). The auction, which was well-attended, established two new artist records and achieved an extremely healthy sell-through rate by value of 81.4%. Jo Vickery, Senior Director and Head of Sothebys Russian Art Department, said: I am delighted by tonights solid results which have shown that the Russian art market has bounced back to a level of activity not seen for over a year. We can see that a combination of market confidence and collectors passion for top quality Russian art produced record results. Early 20th-century blue-chip Russian artists performed especially well, such as Yakovlevs Art Deco masterpiece Titi and Naranghe, Daughters of Chief Eki Bondo, and in the 1