Photo credit: mos.ru (CC BY 4.0)
The autograph of the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol will go under hammer at the auction, which will be held on December, 7, the Izvestia newspaper reports. It is held by the Litfond auction house. The starting price is 18 million rubles ($203,000.)
The autograph is a letter from Gogol to Nikolai Yazykov, it is dedicated to Homer’s Odyssey, which was then translated by Vasily Zhukovsky. On the first page at the top there is an inscription in ink: ''I ask you to accept this / journal that loves you / N. Gogol.''
The inscription was made on the Moskvityanin journal, which was published by historian Mikhail Pogodin. The autograph itself is accompanied by a detailed conclusion from the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, confirming its authenticity.
According to experts, the writer, who lived abroad, received magazines, letters and other correspondence from Russia. Among other things, it was sent from Zhukovsky’s house in Germany. It was there in 1846 that the article ''About the Odyssey, translated by Zhukovsky...'' was written. In the fall, an issue of the journal could have been delivered from Russia.
Russkiy Mir