Results: Russian Sales in London

On Monday Christies, Sotheby's and Bonhams all held specialty sales of Russian fine and decorative arts. Expectations were high. There was concern if wealthy Russians were going to invest in traditional investments or expand their collections in the arts or if they had the funds to invest at all due to lower commodity prices.

John Varoli of Bloombergs reports there were both positives and negatives at the sale. A German Princess of Hanover had 100 lots in the Sotheby's sale with 90 items selling for $2.95 million, beating the catalog high estimate of 1.66 million. We have not seen that happen for a while.

The three sales totaled $31.5 million which was well below the total low estimate from the catalog frin 3 of the 4 various sales sessions. With Sotheby's takin in $24.4 million, Christies totaling $4.55 million and Bonhams bringing in $2.58 million . The Christies sale saw 59% of the 242 lots sell, Bonhmas sold only one third of its 244 lots with none of its top lots selling, and the other Sotehby's sale sold less than two thirds of the lots. Varoli reported that most of the top buyers at the Christie's sale were Americans and Europeans.

The RIA Novosti reports Art dealers have said the relative failure of Monday's auctions - around one third of lots were not sold - was due to auction houses' unrealistic price tags that failed to take into account the weakened state of Russia's economy. Russia's stock market has lost around 70% of its value since May, curtailing the spending power of many of the country's richest people.

Again, just like the recent London contemporary art sales, the catalogs and reserves were established months ago, so the estimates and buyer demand are not really surprising. The Bloomberg piece also notes that items from the Imperial collection with strong provenance sold well, reinforcing the desire for strong ownership history and quality.

To read the Bloomberg article, click HERE.