Matthew Bown: "In Russia there is no crisis"

[Евгений]

The crisis has transformed a week in the Russian Trading spectacular sporting competition: if previously present in the hall sensed series of new records, but now - with the same trepidation - series of failures. But on Monday at auction Bonhams, inconspicuous pioneers of Russian Fashion Week in London, things initially went better than expected. Of the first 50 lots of 33 (66%) were sold. But then came the turn of modernism and contemporary art - and the market collapsed. Of the 46 works of contemporary artists who have completed bidding, only 6 have found a buyer. Of those six, two - things Oleg Tselkov. I spoke with the buyer of one of them, an American dealer Mark Kelnerom. He said he was surprised at not less than all the rest that he managed to buy a big beautiful thing early 1980 for just £ 39 thousand not including commission.
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the court evening buyers selected 55 lots presented Sotheby's. The forum participants had to wait before the auction ends decorative art: the auctioneer worked overtime to attract customers from all that is possible. It was found that 99%of Russian-speaking visitors to the auction hall were merely observers: the real buyers could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and the majority of purchased lots would go to those who haggled over the phone.
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Discovering Russian bid work Aivazovsky was in London tradition - it's like the Queen on Christmas Eve or the infamous five o'clock tuft. You can imagine how prior to the sale the auctioneers to discuss the order of lots in the catalog: "The good old Ayvaz! We can rely on him! "Could a poor Armenian boy from Feodosia imagine a posthumous glory awaited him? At Bonhams sold his work under the numbers 1 and 4, at Sotheby's - 1, 2, 4, 8 and 10. Sotheby's sold the first lot within the estimate, and the second did not sell at all. The third work is left to the bottom bracket estimate, while the fourth - "View of Constantinople and the Bosphorus, the top lot in the evening, priced at £ 2,5-3 million - not sold. Last Aivazovsky went through the preliminary assessment, but failure of the top lot, means that the glory days of the auction of the great marine painter considered: tastes change, and the market is saturated.
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The first truly exciting time was associated with a lot 7 - excellent "Egyptian" Polenov. Estimate £ 250-300 in a thousand far behind, and after a long struggle, the work went for £ 900 thousand Tablets winner number 374 from the floor raised Natalia Kournikova.
  
All the rest, and if sold, then within or below the estimate. A huge picture of Vladimir Makovsky "little market in Moscow has reached £ 1,15 million, but the special events were observed. Elegant Levitan bought for £ 125 thousand members number 375 Ivan Samarin, who attended the auction in person. Lot 13 - Leonid Pasternak - not sold as well as its same thing as number 52! Why someone decided that work on such old-fashioned plot ( "throes of creation") this good, but non-original artist-exile should cost £ 250-350 thousand, it is unclear to me. Lot 14, a monumental Kotarbinsky, left just £ 250 thousand - in my opinion, a very good deal. Huon (lot 15, estimate £ 350-550 thousand) is not sold, as well as the subsequent "Still Life" Larionov (estimate £ 600-800 thousand) and watercolor Bakst (estimate £ 400-600 thousand). Preliminary assessment of these no notable works was obviously too high.

Things went a bit better when rendered in the Hall lot 18 - a large and spectacular Anisfeld, blossoming tree. After a long struggle, the work went to a buyer from Moscow, who was sitting in the hall for £ 400 thousand (estimate £ 180-250 thousand), persistent, but less successful buyer was a well-known London dealer.

After Lot 19 - dopey Kustodiev landscape - not sold, the same buyer Moscow fought for painting Roerich (Lot 20) "Ordinance teacher, but this time the loser. Work bought for £ 950 thousand over the phone. Roerich number 21 on the upper left bracket estimate - £ 700 thousand, and under the numbers 22 and 23 - on the bottom. Personally, I do not understand the love for this artist, but, in fact, he was the star of the evening. Gourmet Kustodiyev (№ 25) sold for £ 110 thousand Buyer - Natalia Kournikova.
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Lots 26 to 28 - Bilibin, and two portraits of men Grigorieva not sold. Lot 29, cubistic composition Vladimir Behteeva went for £ 120 thousand, but, given that the provenance ends in 1994, can not be sure of its authenticity.

Lot 30, Gudiashvili, and Lot 31, Konchalovsky, went below estimate. The next two lots owned by the hand of Alexander Yakovlev. I was surprised that the first, a rather old-fashioned portrait, reached the upper ceiling estimate - £ 600 thousand, while the second, a huge mythical landscape, came to only £ 120 thousand Taste can not be measured in monetary terms: it seems to me there would be worth the price interchanged.
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Lot 34, a nude Larionov, reached the lower estimate in strips £ 1,2 million - a record in the evening. Lots 35 and 36 - both hands Lentulova and both, in my opinion, not the best, went to a telephone buyer for £ 250 and £ 800 thousand, respectively. Lot 37, the average Korovin, went for £ 400 thousand; good deal, I think. Lot 48 - Cabbage, written Larionov - not sold, as well as Lot 39 - "Spanish Portrait" Goncharova and Lot 40 - strange Larionov's Still Life in 1900. Lot 49, a boring Konchalovsky in 1907, returned to the buyer in the room for £ 200 thousand Lot 42 - superb still life Konchalovsky, sold here for £ 290 thousand in 2004 - now in a fight between a telephone buyer, who had acquired Larionov and the man in the hall, bought Anisfeld, went for £ 880 thousand to the first. It was the best job in the evening.

After this auction declined. Lot 43 - Goncharova - was not sold as Lot 44 (Schr) and Lot 45 (Vera Rokhlin). How does this artist-emigre, played no role in the history of Russian art, and art in general, came up for auction this level, remains a mystery. "Ladder" Leonid Chupyatova - a rare and important thing - fell into the hands of Moscow buyer, who had acquired Anisfeld. Weak struggle was for Lot 47, portfolio of lithographs by El Lissitzky, who eventually reached the mark of 100 thousand, which is far below the claimed estimate. Lot 48 - Work Burliuk American period - went for £ 225 thousand to the Ukrainian buyer in the room. Lots 49-53 (two modest portrait of Vladimir Lebedev, bright Baranov-Rossine Calming still life Pasternak and typical sentimental Bogdanov-Belsky) remained unsold. In late trading of a surprise waiting for - £ 200 thousand for ordinary still life of Alexander Gerasimov. Interestingly, he went to the man, who had bought the portrait of Yakovlev. I remember in the nineties I bought such work for £ 3-5 thousand and sold for £ 10-15 thousand

Total Trade - 32 of 55 lots sold, that is 58%. If guided by recent notions of success, it is rather a failure. But it seemed to me that the organizers of the auction Sotheby's sigh of relief. Mikhail Kamensky, looked relaxed, leading auction Lord Poltimor pacing the room, shaking hands and through the rare buyers that are encountered on the road. One of them patriotically observed: "In Russia there is no crisis!" - "Thank you, thank you," - said Lord Poltimor.

But no doubt that the old feelings evaporated, no. Auction rooms are no longer clogged with customers with full pockets, easy money, who are fighting with each other for lots for fun. Now here are only a handful of clients, carefully translated the remaining pennies.
http://www.openspace.ru/art_times/pr.../details/6110/