Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Yakov Pereman was a keen follower of the arts in the 1910s and a central figure in the art world of Odessa, where the turn-of-the-century art scene was increasingly comparable to those found in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Sotheby's will offer a unique grouping of works by the ‘Society of Independent Artists,’ or ‘Odessan Parisians,’ as one critic called them—an avant-garde group of Ukrainian artists who painted in the early years of the twentieth century. Eighty-six works will be offered as a single lot in the Russian Art auction on 22 April 2010 in New York. The collection was compiled by Yakov Pereman, a patron of the arts in Southern Ukraine (then Russia) who moved to Palestine in 1919, taking his art with him. After a series highly publicized exhibitions in the 1920s and a memorial exhibition in 1960-61, the collection was not seen again in public for over 40 years, when select works were exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 2002. The paintings have not been seen in Ukraine since Pereman left. The collection is estimated to fetch $1.5-$2 million. Read the story here.