The death mask of writer Nikolai Gogol is up for auction at the Literary Fund auction house. They will be on February 9. The starting price is 250 thousand rubles. TASS writes about it.
The mask is made of plaster. This is the work of Russian sculptor and artist Nikolai Ramazanov, tentatively dated 1852.
Ramazanov’s memoirs about the writer’s death say: “February 21 [1852 года] in the evening the doorbell rang in my apartment, and a very alarmed Mr. Aksakov appeared and announced Gogol’s death. <...> When I approached Gogol’s body, he did not seem dead to me. The smile on his mouth and his open right eye gave me the idea of a lethargic dream, so I didn’t suddenly decide to take off my mask.
In addition to the mask, the auction will present the New Testament of 1580 (estimated at 1.4 million rubles), sketches by Boris Kustodiev (1.3 million rubles), personal letters of the composer Dmitry Shostakovich (450 thousand rubles) and the autograph of Mikhail Bulgakov. by the writer about the publication Mikhail Maizel “A short essay on modern Russian literature” (starting price: 280 thousand rubles).
Previously, a study by 17th-century Dutch painter Anthony van Dyck, court painter to Charles I, for the painting “Saint Jerome with an Angel” was auctioned at Sotheby’s. The auction took place in New York. Experts valued the painting at $3 million.
