On March 28, the charity auction Breath of Life will open in Irkutsk, where 20 well known Irkutsk artists will present their works. The proceeds will go to buy a high tech ventilator for premature newborns, and the auction has already helped children many times, from wheelchairs and pacemakers to medicines and medical equipment. Visitors will be able to see the paintings in advance at a preview in the House of Artists gallery, and the starting price of the canvases will be 50 thousand rubles.

On March 28, the charity auction “Breath of Life” will open in Irkutsk, and representatives of the business elite, bankers, and politicians have been invited. The auction is being held by the Yuri Ten Charitable Foundation together with the Irkutsk branch of the All-Russian Creative Public Organization “Union of Artists of Russia.” For this event, 20 well-known Irkutsk artists have presented one of their
Last Friday, a preview exhibition of paintings by Irkutsk artists, offered for sale at the auction, opened in the gallery of the “House of Artists.” Over the course of the week, anyone interested will be able to view the exhibited paintings.
The proceeds will go toward the purchase of a high-tech ventilator, necessary to support the lives of premature newborn babies. The auction is being held for the fourth time already. As a result of the first auction, funds were raised to purchase 21 wheelchairs for children with cerebral palsy. The money from the second auction was used to buy 9 pacemakers, which save the lives of more than 40 children suffering from congenital heart defects every year. Last year, a six-month supply of medicines and a device for rapid blood analysis were purchased for the oncohematology department of the Irkutsk Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital.
Only 100 to 120 people will attend the auction, because, as its organizers regretfully note, there is no venue in Irkutsk with a larger capacity for holding such events.
The starting price of the canvases will be 50,000 rubles. Throughout the history of charity auctions, the record amount for a painting was paid by former governor of the Irkutsk region Alexander Tishanin. Last year, he purchased painter Oleg Ushakov’s canvas “The Old Mill” for 1 million rubles.