IZO

The few Russian works at Christies last night seem to have held up well; Goncharova set new records (Scott Reyburn/Bloomberg).

A preview of Ekaterina Degot's important show Struggling for the Banner: Soviet Art between Trotsky and Stalin, 1926-1936, which opens at the New Manege this evening; there's a very useful video-tour if you click on the small blue ВИДЕО button at the start of the text (I had to upgrade my Flash player to view it) (tvkultura.ru, in Russian). Show-stopper: a recreation of a 30-metre El Lissitsky photo-montage.

An interview with photography collector and art dealer Alex Lachmann (Kommersant, in Russian).

Two abstract portraits by Aleksej Jawlensky (Aleksei Yavlenski/y) have gone missing from the Long Beach Museum of Art (LA Times).

Goncharova performed OK, but at low estimate: £1.7 million at Bonhams, £2.28 million and £1.16 million at Sotheby's yesterday. Aivazovsky reached £1.83 million at Sotheby's, Korovin £1.5 million approximately, Kustodiev £1 million and Serebryakova £1 million; the other £1 million+ estimated work, Chagall's rather gloomy Alla, seems not to have sold. Bonhams non-conformists sold very patchily. See also reports by John Varoli/Bloomberg: Bonhams and Sotheby's.

A test of the upper market today, as the Bonhams and Sotheby's Goncharovas go head-to-head. Above: Sotheby's Nature Morte aux Fruits, est £2-3 million. Below, Bonhams' The Sailboat, est. £1.5-2 million. These paintings aside, there is an incredible dearth of best-quality material. and both Bonhams' and Sotheby's top-end evening sale today include plenty of works by emigre artists who, by an art-historical reckoning, are surely of minor importance - in some cases, no discernible importance - in the history of Russian art. But that's the distorting nature of the auction market, skewed by history, Russian export controls and the trouble of doing business in Russia itself (no Western auction house plans on actually setting up shop and selling in Moscow).

An exhibition called Five Seasons of the Russian Avant-Garde, curated from works in the Costakis Collection, is on display now in Thessalonikis (Athens News Agency).

Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum announced yesterday that it would return five works by Malevich to the artist's heirs. The works in question were among the 70-odd that Malevich left in Berlin in 1927, some of which eventually entered the Stedelijk Museum collection. The long struggle for the works was organised by Clemens Toussaint, who won a similar legal battle with MOMA New York a few years ago (Kommersant, in Russian; Kommersant, in English).

A new book on the Moscow Yiddish Theatre, from Yale (Daily Press).

An article on the Rothenstein Goncharova, to be sold by Bonhams with its own catalogue and promotional tour (Economist).