MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti) - Konstantin Somov's portrait of moonlight lovers, Pastorale Russe, fetched 2.4 million pounds ($46.8 million) at Christie's auction house in London Wednesday, to become the most expensive Russian painting ever to be auctioned.

The highest bid for the Russian Art Nouveau painter's 1922 work exceeded the auctioneers' 200,000-pound estimate more than tenfold, a Christie's Moscow-based official said.

In its auction brochure, the 240-year-old auction house called the painting "an erotic yet strangely innocent composition of young lovers by moonlight."

The French-owned company hopes to raise at least 35 million pounds ($68.2 million) from five Russian sales this week, taking advantage of rapidly growing demand among Russia's wealthy elite for their national heritage.

Christie's Russian expert Alexis de Tiesenhausen said this year may see a further increase in demand, not least thanks to the recent launch of preview tours in Moscow and the Russian provinces.

The season's star lot is a silver and diamond Faberge clock, made in 1891 for Russian Emperor Alexander III's silver wedding anniversary. This piece of jewelry is expected to go for 4-6 million pounds ($7.7-$11.6 million), beating the 2002 auction record of $9.6 million.

Works by famous Russian painters Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilya Mashkov and by Konstantin Korovin are also likely to attract strong bids.