Christie's
established a new world auction record in London on June 6, 2011 for Ilya Repin
(1844-1930) by selling his masterpiece, A Parisian Café for £4,521,250.

This bid
represented also the highest price for any Russian painting offered in a Russian
sale by an international auction house. The bidding started at £1.8 million,
and within seconds the room was buzzing as people were waiting in anticipation
for further bids to come. The piece finally sold to an anonymous bidder on the
telephone who bid repeatedly against someone in the room. .