The painting 'Georgian Woman Wearing a Lechaki' by Georgian primitivist painter Niko Pirosmani was sold at 2 230 000 GBP ($2.84 million) at Sotheby’s auction, which is the highest price paid for any Pirosmani painting.
The initial price of the painting was 500 000 – 700 000 GBP.
The painting was presented in the Russian section, though it was indicated that Pirosmani was a Georgian painter, 1TV reported.
According to the website of the auction, the painting is from the collection of well-known Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. Zweig was introduced to the works of Niko Pirosmani in 1928 during a visit to Moscow for the centenary celebrations of the birth of Leo Tolstoy.
Zweig acquired the present lot during this trip and the painting quickly became his favourite and it hung in his home in Salzburg prior to his emigration to Brazil in 1934. Following Zweig’s death in 1942 the painting remained in the possession of his first wife Friderike Maria Zweig, until it was gifted to Dr Harry Zohn in 1953. Dr Zohn, founder of the International Stefan Zweig Society, donated the painting to the Zweig Room in the Reed Library at the State University College at Fredonia, New York in 1981 where it has remained until this sale.
