Gift for Raisa Gorbachev Is Royal Delight

Sotheby’s auctioneers on Friday presented Raisa Gorbachev with the long-lost portrait of an 18th-Century czar, which the Soviet First Lady accepted with delight, even though she questioned the authorship of the painting.

The wife of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, known for her interest in the arts, was presented the painting of Czar Peter III (1728-62) by Sotheby’s chairman, Lord Gowrie, at the Soviet Embassy in London.

At the same time, Sotheby’s gave Soviet officials the leather-bound original 1861 manuscript of the novel “Fathers and Sons,” by one of Russia’s greatest writers, Ivan Turgenev.

In accepting the painting, Raisa Gorbachev politely disagreed when Gowrie said the painting was by court artist Alexander Rokotov. “It really doesn’t belong to Rokotov himself, it’s from the school of him,” she said.

Gowrie said Sotheby’s had been assured by a Soviet museum that the painting was by Rokotov. She replied: “Sometimes it’s difficult for experts to establish firmly.”

But she said she was delighted anyway at receiving the picture.

The portrait, which was missing for nearly 50 years, surfaced in London, and Sotheby’s bought the picture for $12,000 in April.