When Dr Mikhail Piotrovsky gave the keynote lecture at America’s International Fine Art and Antique Fair last month in Palm Beach, about the relationship between Russian art and American collectors, there was standing room only.

The director of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, an art world luminary, often draws a crowd. But the prominence of his lecture showed how Russian art, long under-appreciated and undervalued, is finally gaining serious attention on the international art scene.