This item is typically worth $50 – $5,000, depending on maker, condition, age and demand.
Market values current as of October 2026Most Orthodox icons in Western homes are modern souvenirs, printed icons glued to wood, or genuine hand-painted panels from the 19th or early 20th century. The first two usually sell for $20 to $200. Real 19th-century panels typically bring $300 to $3,000, and icons in a hallmarked silver cover can bring far more.
Subject matters less than people expect. St. George and the Dragon, the Archangel Michael, the Mother of God (Theotokos) and St. John the Baptist were all painted in large numbers. Age, painting quality, the silver cover and condition decide the price.
A modern or tourist icon is typically worth $20 to $200. A hand-painted 19th-century provincial Russian or Greek panel usually sells for $300 to $3,000. Fine Moscow or Palekh work, and icons in an 84-standard silver oklad with enamel, often bring $3,000 to $25,000, and a few top pieces exceed $50,000. Turn the icon over first: the back of the panel and the marks on the silver cover tell you more than the painting.
What exactly do I have?
- The panel: Traditional icons are egg tempera on a wooden board coated with gesso (levkas), often over glued linen. A hand-planed back with one or two wedge-shaped battens (shponki) slotted across the grain points to a genuinely old panel. Plywood or MDF means modern.
- The kovcheg: Many older Russian icons have a shallow recessed central field with a raised border. A pronounced, hand-cut recess is typical of earlier work. Most 20th-century panels are flat.
- Painted or printed: Look at the faces with a 10x loupe. Brushwork shows hatched highlights; a print shows a dot screen. From about 1880 to 1917 printed paper and tin icons on wood were mass produced, often under a metal cover.
- The cover: A metal cover is called an oklad or riza. Silver covers carry marks; brass and gilt-metal ones do not.
- Inscriptions: Church Slavonic lettering points to Russia, Ukraine, Serbia or Bulgaria; Greek abbreviations to Greece or Mount Athos. A painter's signature and date, such as a Greek icon signed and dated 1910, are useful but are easily added later.
To get a first read on period and type, photograph the front, the back of the panel and any marks on the cover. See also antique identification.
Reading the silver oklad
On many icons the silver cover is worth more than the painting underneath. Russian silver is marked with a fineness number in zolotniki: 84 is 875/1000, the usual standard for icon covers. Before 1896 the city mark is usually accompanied by a year and an assayer's initials. Between 1896 and 1899 the kokoshnik mark (a woman's head in a headdress) replaced that system; from 1908 it carries a Greek letter for the assay district. A maker's mark in Cyrillic initials completes the set.
Famous names are faked. Marks for Ovchinnikov, Khlebnikov, Fabergé and Grachev are added to unmarked or later covers, sometimes alongside correct-looking 84 marks. A real Ovchinnikov piece is not automatically a large sum either: a small enamel triptych by him made $3,500 at Jackson's in 2020. Our silver hallmarks guide explains marks in general, and the silver melt calculator shows the floor value. Oklads are thin sheet, so melt value is almost always far below the value as an icon.
Is it real?
- Tourist "antique" icons: New icons sold in Greece, Russia, Bulgaria and online with crackle varnish, dark stain, drilled wormholes and gold foil. Real worm tunnels run along the grain and are cut open where the board was planed.
- Printed icons under heavy varnish: Art prints pasted to old-looking boards and varnished, sold as hand-painted.
- A riza with nothing under it: Some covers hide a panel painted only where the openings are. Normal for cheap 19th-century icons, and priced accordingly.
- Overpainting: Old icons were often repainted. An expert may describe a piece as a 19th-century painting on an older board.
Craquelure and dark varnish prove nothing alone.
What Orthodox icons sell for
| Item | Typical value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Modern or tourist icon (plywood, print, gold foil) | $20 to $200 | Includes "aged" souvenir-shop icons. Known modern iconographers can bring more. |
| Printed paper or tin icon on wood, c. 1880 to 1917 | $50 to $300 | More with a silver oklad; value is then mostly the silver. |
| 19th-century provincial panel, Russian, Greek or Balkan | $300 to $3,000 | Folk-style Mstera and village work. Overpaint and flaking reduce value. |
| Fine Moscow or Palekh school, or 18th-century panel | $2,000 to $15,000 | Miniature-quality painting, gold grounds, multi-saint compositions. |
| Icon in 84-standard silver or silver-gilt oklad | $1,500 to $25,000 | Enamel, filigree, a known maker and full marks push to the top. |
| Museum-grade (16th-17th century, imperial provenance, Fabergé) | $50,000 and up | Rare, and almost always with documented history. |
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Verified recent sales
- $61,750: Christ Pantocrator in a silver-gilt and cloisonné enamel oklad, Pavel Ovchinnikov, Moscow, 1895, against a $10,000 to $15,000 estimate. Waddington's, Toronto, December 2025 (verified).
- £40,960: Vladimir Mother of God in a silver-gilt oklad with enamel, 84 standard, maker's mark SJ, Moscow, 1908. Bonhams, London, September 2025 (verified).
- $18,750: Kazan Mother of God in a silver filigree oklad, Moscow, 1908 to 1917, estimated $4,000 to $6,000. Jackson's International, December 2020 (verified).
- $2,750: Stroganov school Archangel Michael, about 1700, same Jackson's sale (verified).
- $70,800: St. Nicholas, about 1890, in a silver-gilt filigree and enamel cover Jackson's International, July 2008 (verified).
- $2,925: 19th-century Moscow-region icon of the Archangel Michael on a winged horse. Shapiro Auctions, March 2018 (verified).
- £4,000: Greek St. George and the Dragon, possibly 17th century, in a later silvered metal cover, 24 cm. Bonhams, London, June 2013 (verified).
- $540,700 (as reported, converted from pounds): silver-gilt and enamel triptych of the Feodorovskaya Mother of God, an 1894 wedding gift to the future Nicholas II. Sotheby's London, June 2018 (verified).
The large results are almost all silver-gilt and enamel covers with full Moscow marks. Plain panels rarely pass a few thousand dollars unless they are early.
Export rules and legal title
Russia has restricted the export of old icons since Soviet times. Today, exporting any cultural valuable requires a permit from the Russian Ministry of Culture and a customs declaration, and customs officers routinely treat icons more than 50 years old as cultural valuables. In November 2025 customs at Novosibirsk airport stopped a traveler carrying an undeclared cast icon and opened administrative cases. An icon long held abroad is not affected; for a recent purchase in Russia, keep any export certificate and receipt.
What to do now
- Do not clean it. No water, solvents or polish on the painting, and do not polish the silver. Flaking paint needs a conservator.
- Do not remove the oklad; old nails split panels.
- Record everything: front, back, edges, each mark under a loupe, size in centimeters, family history.
- Under $500: eBay or local auctions. Price from sold listings, not asking prices.
- $500 to $20,000: regional houses with Russian sales, such as Jackson's or Shapiro. Expect a seller's commission of about 10 to 25 percent; buyers pay a 20 to 28 percent premium on top. Find houses in our fine art directory.
- Above $20,000: Russian art sales at Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams or MacDougall's.
Dealers buying outright usually offer well below auction value, because they have to resell.
Trusted resources
- Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, Massachusetts: a major public collection.
- Russian silver hallmarks reference: city, assayer and maker marks.
- Types of icon forgery: printed icons, aged copies, empty rizas.
What Drives the Value
- Silver cover — an 84-standard silver or silver-gilt oklad with full Moscow or St. Petersburg marks can multiply value, especially with cloisonné enamel or filigree.
- Age — 18th-century and earlier panels with original paint bring far more than common late 19th-century production.
- Quality of painting — fine Moscow or Palekh miniature-style work beats folk-style provincial painting by a wide margin.
- Painted versus printed — printed paper or tin icons on wood are worth a fraction of hand-painted ones.
- Condition — flaking, losses, heavy overpainting and stripped surfaces cut value sharply.
- Maker — a verified Ovchinnikov, Khlebnikov or Fabergé cover adds a premium, but only with correct marks and quality.
- Provenance — imperial gifts, old collection labels and documented export add significantly to the top end.
- Venue — specialist Russian art sales draw international buyers; general sales and dealers often pay less.
Identification Checklist
- Turn the icon over: a solid hand-planed board with one or two tapered battens (shponki) slotted across the grain points to a genuinely old panel.
- Look for a kovcheg, the shallow recessed central field with raised borders; a pronounced hand-cut recess is typical of earlier Russian icons.
- Check the edges for layers of linen and white gesso (levkas) under the paint; modern souvenir icons are often printed or painted directly on plywood.
- Use a 10x loupe on the faces: hatched brush highlights mean painted, a regular dot pattern means a printed icon from about 1880 onward or later.
- On a silver oklad look for the number 84 (875/1000), a city mark with year or a kokoshnik head, the assayer's initials and the maker's Cyrillic initials.
- Read the inscriptions: Church Slavonic suggests Russia, Ukraine, Serbia or Bulgaria; Greek abbreviations suggest Greece or Mount Athos.
- Measure the panel in centimeters; many domestic Russian icons with oklads are around 31 x 26 cm, while very small travel icons and large church panels are rarer.
- Note any painter's signature and date, but treat it as a clue only, since inscriptions can be added later.
How to Spot a Fake
- Fake wormholes are usually drilled straight in; real worm tunnels run along the grain and appear as open channels where the board was planed.
- Artificial craquelure from crackle varnish looks uniform across the whole surface; old cracks follow the wood grain and the gesso layers.
- Maker marks for Ovchinnikov, Khlebnikov, Fabergé and Grachev are often added to later or unmarked covers; check them against a reference such as Postnikova-Loseva.
- A riza may hide a panel painted only where the openings are; this is normal for cheap 19th-century icons but should be priced accordingly.
- Printed images glued to old boards and coated with heavy varnish are sold as hand-painted; a loupe shows the print dots.
- For any icon that might be worth more than $3,000, get a specialist auction house opinion; important pieces may need pigment analysis.
