FROM FEBRUARY 20-23, 2008 SOTHEBY’S will host a Moscow exhibition of highlights from its second London sale of Russian Contemporary Art, which will take place on Wednesday, March 12, 2008. The exhibition will comprise some 30 lots which showcase the broad range of works on offer in the sale. Included will be pieces by Eric Bulatov, Alexander Kosolapov, Oleg Vassiliev, Ivan Chuikov and the cutting-edge collective of four artists AES+F, whose works have been exhibited at Tate Britain and recently short-listed for the Kandinsky Prize in Russia. The exhibition will take place in the exhibition hall of the Moscow Centre of Arts on Neglinnaya street 14.

The Museum of Fine Arts has filed a federal lawsuit to retain ownership of a 1913 oil painting sold during the Nazi occupation of Austria.

The sale of Russian art at Christie's auction houses in 2007 reached a record $US 144 million worldwide.

World-famous Mariinsky Opera from St. Petersburg will open a winter art festival in Baden-Baden, Germany, tonight with the premiere of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman opera produced by British director Ian Judge.

It has become an annual invasion. In early January Russians flock to the British capital for the winter festival. The Russian community in London take over the city centre to host a street party. It's a chance for them to show off the best in their home country's culture and cuisine.

Moscow's famous Bolshoi Theatre orchestra, choir and ballet are touring Europe. The first two have been playing on the newly restored stage of Milan's La Scala Opera House, and the Bolshoi’s opera is also on its way to Milan. Meanwhile the ballet has been wowing audiences in Paris.

An exhibition of major Russian and French artworks is to go ahead in London after a law to protect them came into force in the UK.

Classical singer Russell Watson has described how he thought he was "not going to make it" through emergency brain surgery to remove a tumour.

The Art Institute of Chicago says that a half-man, half-goat ceramic figure supposedly sculpted by 19th century French artist Paul Gauguin is a fake.

A concert in Ankara by the prominent violist Yuri Bashmet and his Moscow Soloists orchestra will be wrapping up a yearlong festival of Russia culture in Turkey.