The original title of this amazingly complex painting was among the mysteries deliberately left by the author. Boris Sveshnikov often wrote the title and date on the back. But not this time. As a result, the painting changed its title several times over the 60 years. Someone saw in it a park at dusk, someone a path in the evening woods, someone a trail in the sand. The clue, meanwhile, was in the most prominent place. But in order to see the plot, a drop of magic was needed: the attentive viewer had to be helped at just the right moment by the light that fell correctly.

The auction ArtSale.info received the work “Seahorse” by non-conformist Dmitry Plavinsky. For the author of “Manhattan Fish”, “Stingray” and “Moscow Turtle” the theme is common. The outlines of a seahorse were shown schematically, but none of the collectors were alerted to the plot. Only a week after the auction, a comment on Facebook completely reversed the interpretation of the work, adding a dialogue with Rembrandt and Van Gogh. Details — in the new video from the series “Examining Artworks”.

This work was painted 57 years ago by the sixties artist Igor Vulokh. It has been exhibited many times and published in catalogs. It was last seen in 2008. And recently it was confirmed that the painting no longer exists. That's what happens sometimes. But in this story, all ends well. And what really happened — we tell you in another video from the series “Examining Artworks”.

How do we check artworks before we put them up for auction? How do we interact with experts? How does the study of provenance (history of ownership) take place? Sometimes along the way we meet some unexpected and pleasant discoveries. Watch the reconstructions of such real-life events in the new rubric “Examining Artworks” on the YouTube channel of ArtSale.info.

The artist Viktor Semyonovich Kazarin passed away. An outstanding Russian neo-expressionist and post-suprematist died on February 1, 2021 in Moscow.