It's nice when someone agrees with you; even nicer when it's a portion of the professional art world. A friend calls to quote me this from the most recent issue of The Art Newspaper about the top-lot Kuindzhi at Sotheby's NY last month:

Before the sale, the work's authenticity had been questioned by collectors and dealers, none of whom wanted to go on the record. Sotheby's dismissed this: "We feel these rumours are spread by some dealers in order to scare bidders away and keep prices low," said one top auction house official.

Well, that's a bit far-fetched from Sotheby's: in fact, it suggests they inhabit a parallel universe in which values are inverted. Who are these dealers who want to "keep prices low"???!%$£@!! And it doesn't address the fact that the work sold plainly differs from the illustration of, purportedly, the same work in an early C20 Kuindzhi book that Sotheby's chose to reproduce in its catalogue. A couple of snapshots from Sotheby's catalogue below: on the left, the old book illustration, on the right, the painting that was sold by Sotheby's. Even at the tiny resolution I offer them here on IZO, they plainly differ. Look for example at the markings on the tree-trunks: it's like a game of spot the difference for pre-schoolers. I'm told by someone who viewed the old book itself that the differences really are substantial.

It's hard for me to see how Sotheby's can assert that the work illustrated in the old book and the work they sold are one and the same. It's possible, of course, that it underwent substantial all-over restoration at some point; in which case, one might expect Sotheby's to point that out. But I didn't get the impression, on viewing it in Moscow, that it had been restored. If the old book illustration does indeed represent the third version of this painting by Kuindzhi (the other two being in museums), then, logically, Sotheby's work would be something else: a fourth version, perhaps, painted, I suggest, on a very off-day? Or...? UPDATE: the report in The Art Newspaper is by John Varoli.