Russian Art - Indian Art News https://indianartnews.visionsarts.com News on Modern and Contemporary Indian Art presented by Visions Art Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:41:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://i0.wp.com/indianartnews.visionsarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cropped-Visions-Art.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Russian Art - Indian Art News https://indianartnews.visionsarts.com 32 32 136536861 Royal treasures shine at Russia sale, others flop https://indianartnews.visionsarts.com/royal-treasures-shine-at-russia-sale-others-flop/ https://indianartnews.visionsarts.com/royal-treasures-shine-at-russia-sale-others-flop/#respond Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:41:00 +0000 http://indianartnews.info/royal-treasures-shine-at-russia-sale-others-flop/ By Mike Collett-WhiteSource – Thomas Reuters LONDON (Reuters) – Rediscovered royal treasures from Russia broke records at a London auction late on Monday, but a separate sale of paintings …

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By Mike Collett-White
Source – Thomas Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – Rediscovered royal treasures from Russia broke records at a London auction late on Monday, but a separate sale of paintings fell well short of estimates.

The Sotheby’s auctions pointed to ongoing uncertainty in a market that has grown virtually from nothing in the last 15 years as newly wealthy Russians and former Soviet tycoons sought to buy back art taken out of the region after the revolution. The sales also underlined the importance of provenance, with imperial links apparently the most desirable of all.

The so-called “Romanov Heirlooms,” which had been lost to posterity for over 90 years before they were discovered in Sweden in 2009, fetched 7.1 million pounds, around seven times expectations.

An auction record for a Faberge cigarette case was set when an imperial jeweled, four-colored gold example went to a private U.S. buyer for 612,000 pounds ($1 million) including premium, nearly six times its pre-sale estimate.

Several other cases smashed the previous auction record of 433,600 pounds set in 2006, including a jeweled, three-color gold work that fetched 601,000 and also went to a bidder from the United States.

“WHITE GLOVE” SALE

Every lot at the auction was sold, making it a rare “white glove sale” for the auctioneer. All but one of the lots on offer sold for amounts in excess of their pre-sale high estimates.

“The extraordinary results of this evening’s sale … are tributes to the exquisite quality, outstanding provenance and romantic story behind this remarkable collection,” said Olga Vaigatcheva and Darin Bloomquist, Sotheby’s Russian art specialists in charge of the sale.

“Successful buyers in tonight’s sale have, without doubt, acquired a piece of Russian imperial history.” The objects on sale originally belonged to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and her late husband Grand Duke Vladimir, brother of Czar Alexander III.

In grave danger after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, the duchess, a renowned socialite, fled Russia and organized for her treasures to be collected. They were deposited at the Swedish Legation in St. Petersburg in two pillow cases.

Less impressive was the evening sale of Russian paintings, which raised 4.1 million pounds, well short of expectations of between 7.8 and 11.1 million pounds.

Despite the disappointing total, Sotheby’s said it set a new auction record for a work by leading 20th century female artist Alexandra Exter, whose bright-colored “Venice” went for 1 million pounds including commission, in line with expectations.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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The new reality—the state of the art market in 2009 is not easy to predict https://indianartnews.visionsarts.com/the-new-reality-the-state-of-the-art-market-in-2009-is-not-easy-to-predict-2/ https://indianartnews.visionsarts.com/the-new-reality-the-state-of-the-art-market-in-2009-is-not-easy-to-predict-2/#respond Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:10:00 +0000 http://indianartnews.info/the-new-reality-the-state-of-the-art-market-in-2009-is-not-easy-to-predict-2/ Georgina Adam 19.1.09 Issue 198 The general economy and also the art economy is clearly headed for some choppy waters…” This is what mega-dealer Larry Gagosian told his staff …

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Georgina Adam 19.1.09 Issue 198

The general economy and also the art economy is clearly headed for some choppy waters…” This is what mega-dealer Larry Gagosian told his staff in a tough-talking, if ungrammatical, memo published last November in Flash Art, as the global financial meltdown continued to panic investors, the US recession was officially confirmed and unemployment figures for the country soared by 533,000 in that month alone.

Elsewhere in this issue, we look at the effect the credit crunch is having on the art world as the new year begins. In the art market, there have been a few early victims of the crisis, including the 18 employees sacked by PaceWildenstein in New York, and the 17 “fabricators” of pill cabinets, butterfly paintings and pickled animals axed by Damien Hirst. “I want to make sure that we are the best swimmers on the block. The luxury of carrying under-performing employees is now a thing of the past,” warned Mr Gagosian, in a similar vein, in the same memo to his staff.
In Miami, the trendy French dealer Emmanuel Perrotin has shuttered his gallery, and now will only reopen it for Art Basel Miami Beach next December. Sotheby’s is also trimming its workforce, and has announced it has abandoned guarantees for the foreseeable future. The firm, and its arch-rival Christie’s, were badly hit by the collapse in art prices during New York’s sales of impressionist, modern and contemporary art in November, which garnered only half the expected totals. Those sales were prepared before the autumn, when art prices were still riding high. Some works sold in November for half their low estimates, and up to 75% of the works in some sales were bought in.
Today a different reality prevails. The lacklustre 2008 autumn fairs, Frieze and Art Basel Miami Beach, saw dealers prepared to be flexible on prices, accepting discounts of up to 30%. But, as journalist, sociologist and lecturer (and The Art Newspaper contributor) András Szántó points out: “Just as designer brands are now being offered at huge discounts in the high street—were those shoes or handbags really worth the previous prices?—so those [pre-financial meltdown] prices should never have been so huge. Some dealers priced art so aggressively, and the prices went up with such velocity, that it is inevitable that they should fall back sharply.”
These prices rose with the greatest speed for contemporary art. But the picture of the art market, as 2009 opens, is far from simple. It is always worth remembering that the market is not a single block, but a whole series of sub-sections.
More traditional categories, where prices did not rise so dramatically, have weathered the downturn better. The London sales of old master paintings in December, for example, saw enthusiastic bidding for the best works on offer, with Christie’s selling a rediscovered Tiepolo for £2.8m and Sotheby’s making £3.6m for Frans van Mieris the Elder’s A Young Woman In a Red Jacket Feeding a Parrot, 1663, (est. £500,000-£700,000). And there was extraordinarily strong take-up and an 87.6% sell-through rate (by lot) for Victorian narrative painting, an unfashionable category if ever there was one, from the Scott Collection, held at Sotheby’s London in November.
The sale of stock of traditional antique furniture in London by Christie’s from the Jeremy and Hotspur dealers was by no means a rout, and made near its (admittedly “realistic”) pre-sale estimate. Elsewhere, a Seurat drawing made $6.3m in Paris, five times higher than expectations. Everywhere, while sell-through rates are down, there is still money being spent on art and buyers available for the best works.
Against this must be placed dire results for the over-estimated, over-supplied Russian market and severely weakening totals for contemporary Chinese art and Middle-Eastern art. At Christie’s sale in Dubai last autumn, Parviz Tanavoli’s sculpture, Poet in Love, 1998-2007, fetched $242,500, well under its low estimate of $400,000. Again, these were categories where prices had risen the highest, and the fastest, supported by speculative buying.
As this year starts, what are the prospects for the art market? “As long as you see wild fluctuations on Wall Street, no one will spend a lot of money on art. I think 2009 is going to be very difficult,” says Per Haubro Jensen of the venerable New York dealers Knoedler & Company. To this must be added the psychological impact of the meltdown—for many, it seems the wrong time to be buying what is, after all, an inessential purchase.
Supply presents an ambiguous picture. On the one hand, vendors are holding back from selling, for fear of “burning” their pictures by seeing them unsold; the auction houses are struggling to bring in good material for next month’s sales. On the other hand, forced sales by cash-strapped collectors may bring desirable works onto the market. Dealers claim that it is a great time to buy, and a number were acquiring inventory at Art Basel Miami Beach last month. “Cash is king at the moment, and there will be great buying opportunities,” concludes Mr Szántó.
The writer is editor-at-large of The Art Newspaper

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Off the wall? A globalised art market defies the doomsayers https://indianartnews.visionsarts.com/off-the-wall-a-globalised-art-market-defies-the-doomsayers/ https://indianartnews.visionsarts.com/off-the-wall-a-globalised-art-market-defies-the-doomsayers/#respond Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:31:00 +0000 http://indianartnews.info/off-the-wall-a-globalised-art-market-defies-the-doomsayers/ Deborah BrewsterWhen Roman Abramovich, the Russian metals and minerals tycoon, and Sheikh Saud al-Thani, from the Qatari royal family, both showed up this month at the Basel art fair, …

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Deborah Brewster
When Roman Abramovich, the Russian metals and minerals tycoon, and Sheikh Saud al-Thani, from the Qatari royal family, both showed up this month at the Basel art fair, their presence caused a stir but no surprise. The commodities market and the art market have grown unlikely links.
The huge wealth from oil and mining in the Middle East and Russia is flowing into fine art, with a rush of new buyers entering a market that was already booming. Mr Abramovich was the buyer of two of the three most expensive paintings sold at Sotheby’s big May sale in New York, according to The Art Newspaper – paying $86m (£43m, €55m) for Francis Bacon’s “Triptych, 1976” and $34m for Lucian Freud’s “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping”.
The Qataris are building an art museum and the sheikh has emerged as one of the biggest collectors in the world. Sotheby’s estimates that Russian buyers accounted for 15 per cent of sales at its Impressionist and Modern auction in February, compared with 9 per cent last year, and a negligible amount the previous year. Russian art is itself booming – along with virtually every other sector of art – thanks to demand from Russia.
The arrival of Russian, Middle Eastern and emerging market collectors has given fresh evidence to those who believe that the powerful rise in the price of artworks is structural rather than cyclical – reflecting a long-term shift to a truly global market supported by growing numbers of millionaires and billionaires.
Last year, the art market – as measured by proceeds for the top 100 artists sold at auction – in nominal terms surpassed the previous high set in 1990, according to data from Art Market Report. After a decade in the doldrums the market recovered sharply in 2003-04 and has been on the upswing ever since. The rise in the contemporary market has been especially strong, with prices up by 300 per cent in the past three years, according to Art Market Report’s Contemporary Art 100 index.
On Tuesday, Christie’s sold £144m of art at its Impressionist and Modern sale in London, the highest ever amount for any European art auction. Claude Monet’s 1919 “Le Bassin aux Nympheas’’ water lilies painting went for £41m, twice its estimate.
The next night at Sotheby’s a 1915 painting, “Danseuse” by Gino Severini, likewise raced away from its £7m estimate, going for £15m. That was more than seven times the previous record for a work by the Italian artist, of £2m, which was set at the peak of the last boom in May 1990. (Final prices include a buyer’s premium of more than 12 per cent, which is not included in estimates.)
This week’s sales were buoyant, with the two houses together selling £283m of artworks, 19 per cent more than last year, according to MutualArt.com, an art database. That defied the doom­sayers, who have been predicting a fall in art prices for the past two years. The high level of nervousness about the market was revealed last November, when shares in Sotheby’s plummeted 28 per cent in a day. The reason? The auction house had failed to sell a work by Van Gogh at its sale the night before. The share price has not recovered.
Many respected dealers and collectors believe the market has reached its peak. Eli Broad, the Los Angeles-based billionaire collector, has said several times that he does not believe prices will continue to rise.
One bearish New York-based dealer says: “Mark my words, the Russians will turn out to be the Japanese of the early 21st century.” During the last art market peak, Japanese property developers were famously among the biggest buyers, snapping up Impressionist works – they were especially fond of Van Gogh – only to offload them at much lower prices just a few years later when the Tokyo asset bubble burst.
The underlying support for today’s art market does appear to be much more broadly based. Certainly, claims that the middle market in art is softening – by implication, a precursor to a wider decline – are not supported by evidence. At this week’s day sales, the proportion of lots that failed to sell was no higher than in previous years.
Sotheby’s points out that five years ago, its buyers who spent more than $500,000 on an artwork came from 26 countries. Today, buyers spending that level or more come from 58 countries. Last year, 21 per cent of buyers at its sales were new, the auction house says. Since few buy at auction only once, that means an influx of customers. Helena Newman, vice-chair of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s, says: “The whole make-up of buyers has changed beyond recognition from 10 years ago. Now we have a far bigger global reach. We are also seeing far greater demand for the very best works. Our big challenge remains the sourcing of works, finding those top-quality Impressionist and Modern works to sell.”
Simon de Pury, who heads the Phillips de Pury auction house, echoes that trend, saying: “Five years ago, the market was concentrated in western European and American collectors, a small group of art cognoscenti. The Contemporary market was dominated by three countries – the US, the UK and Germany. Now we can see the change just in our website: the hits are coming from Brazil, Turkey, China, India, Indonesia, Korea.”
Phillips de Pury specialises in Contemporary art and will be holding its sale next week, along with Christie’s and Sotheby’s Contemporary sales.
Mr de Pury says the change accelerated two years ago. He predicts that Contemporary art will continue to grow in buyer popularity, in part because the sheer number of buyers means that demand for works from previous eras cannot be met. “It is a question of availability. If you have unlimited money, you can no longer buy the best Old Masters collection in the world. But you can buy the best collection of living artists. For that reason Contemporary art will be the most significant market for the next 20 years.”
He adds: “In China, every new [top-end] real estate complex being built has an art museum. All these spaces need to be filled and that will keep demand high.”
Most Middle Eastern nations are likewise building art museums, with both a Guggenheim and a Louvre destined for Abu Dhabi, for example. These museums will start accumulating works to fill their vast spaces later this year. In the US, the home of most of the world’s billionaires, there is a growing trend for rich art-lovers to build their own museums rather than donate works to existing museums as used to be the practice.
There are far more rich people in the world and they are simply far more likely to buy artworks. The number of millionaires in Brazil, Russia, India and China grew by 19 per cent last year, according to the World Wealth Report, released this week by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. The top 10 collectors in the world now include Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian steel billionaire, Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecommunications tycoon, and Qatar’s Sheik al-Thani, according to ARTnews magazine, which this week released its annual list of big spenders.
Art is also seen as a socially desirable channel for the wealth resulting from the 20-year growth in financial services. US hedge fund managers such as Steve Cohen have emerged as big Contemporary collectors. Ben Crawford, the chief marketing officer of MutualArt.com, says: “It starts with the wealthy and then there is a trickle-down effect. Look at the beginning of the century – who bought designer clothes? Tiny numbers of high-society people – but once they became available to more and more people, the buyers didn’t go back. The art buyers won’t go back to putting Star Wars posters on their walls.”
A new test for the market will come next week, when the Contemporary sales take place. The sales include works by Chinese and Indian artists, which even three years ago would have been relegated to the Chinese and Indian sales – if they were sold at all.

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