SELLING RUSSIA’S TREASURES: THE SOVIET TRADE IN NATIONALIZED ART 1917-38 Edited by Natalya Semyonova and Nicholas V. Iljine Abbeville, $75, 364 pages. Thick as a turnip and studded in jewels ...

4. “Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art, 1775-2012” by Barbara C. Matilsky (Whatcom Museum/University of Washington Press, $39.95).

Marina Semyonova, the first great ... Natalya Bessmertnova and Nadezhda Pavlova, as well as Ms. Plisetskaya. “What she demonstrated in her time was unusual, brand new, breathtaking,” Ms ...