Painted into a corner no longer
Unable to insure work, Attleboro museum sells it for $712k
It was a classic "Antiques Roadshow" tale: The exotically colored painting of a nomad family drinking tea in a yurt sat more or less forgotten in a basement until one day it was discovered to be worth possibly more than $1 million.
But in this case there was a twist. The owner was the Attleboro Art Museum, which had stored the painting, "Under a Kirghiz Tent" by Russian artist Alexandre Iacovleff, in a vault along with most of the other pieces of its permanent collection, oblivious to its value.
One might think that an art museum would be tempted to display such a treasure once it discovered its monetary and historical value. But the museum discovered another fact: The painting was worth more than most of the museum's other assets put together and the cost of insuring the piece was prohibitive.,
"We decided to enrich our endowment and make our arts education program stronger," said Mim Brooks Fawcett, the museum's executive director.
The museum put the painting up for auction in London last year, hoping to bring in $800,000 to $1.2 million and set the 85-year-old museum on firmer financial footing.
But the painting failed to sell. Then a private sale fell through.
Last week, it finally sold at a
"We all just tapped one another and smiled," Fawcett said of the moment when the gavel fell. "It was a smile we hadn't had."
While not the best-known Russian artist, Iacovleff was an academy-trained painter whose work became especially popular in Boston after he served as director of the painting department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts from 1934 to 1937. Prior to that, he traveled the world, introducing vivid images of Nigerian sultans, Afghan horsemen, and Japanese Kabuki dancers to a Western audience largely unfamiliar with such exotic subjects.
In 1931, Iacovleff was part of a motor expedition that traveled 20,000 miles across Eurasia, following the fabled route that took Marco Polo to China more than 600 years before. The artist sketched and painted continuously throughout the journey, producing more than 500 works of art, including "Under a Kirghiz Tent."
In January 1936, National Geographic magazine included the painting in a story, "The Nomads of Central Asia."
"Into their tea the Kirghiz stir chunks of mutton fat and pieces of cheese," reads a caption below the painting. "The result is an invigorating broth which the artist tasted and found palatable and refreshing. The family, camped in Chinese Turkistan, burns dried yak or camel dung to cook the food and warm the yurt."
In the 1950s, prominent Boston art dealer and North Attleborough native William Charles Thompson donated the piece to the Attleboro museum.
At about the same time, he donated another painting by the artist, "The Afghans," to the Community School in North Attleborough.
That painting hung in the school's auditorium for years until a curious resident looked up the artist online and discovered the work's value, triggering the investigation of the Attleboro museum's own Iacovleff.
"Under a Kirghiz Tent" had once been on display at the museum's former location. But it was tucked away when the museum moved downtown to an old London's department store in the 1990s.
"We don't really exhibit our permanent collection," Fawcett said, adding that the museum usually displays traveling exhibits or work by local artists. "While the painting could have fit in, we don't really have a range of Russian paintings. We have a lot of furniture, a lot of American treasures."
The decision to sell the painting could not have come at a better time. Russia's economic resurgence since the fall of the Soviet Union, combined with the upper crust's desire to reacquire prestigious and patriotic treasures, has driven the market for Russian art to new levels. The Sotheby's two-day Russian art auction last week fetched a record-breaking $46.4 million.
In North Attleborough, officials are debating what to do with the other Iacovleff painting. While school officials originally wanted to sell the "The Afghans," some want to see it stay in town, in keeping with Thompson's desire to expose the community to the arts.
Fawcett said she thinks the museum's decision to sell "Under a Kirghiz Tent" will fulfill Thompson's intentions. The proceeds from the sale will enable the museum to expand its education programs for children and to hold more cultural events for the community.
"It's not the end of our development efforts," she said. "But it absolutely helps us. It's the gift that keeps on giving."
Tania deLuzuriaga can be reached at deluzuriaga@globe.com. 