Results: Sotheby's NY Russian Art Sale

This week saw the sale of Russian Art at Sotheby's New York. The results are mixed, but there is some positive news in the sale. There were some records set, the sell through rate was good but not great and the sale totaled just over the low estimate. Now days, I believe you take those results as a positive with some signs of strength.

There were 308 lots offered with 200 selling and 108 being bought in for a 64.9% sell through rate. The sale brought a total of $13.84 million including buyers premiums. The sale had estimates of $12.5 - $17.5 million, when including the buyers premium the sale beat the low estimate.

The top two lotss were an Ivan Aivazovsky of Columbus sailing from Palos, 1892 which sold fo $1.59 million (estimate $1 - $1.5 million) and a pair of Boris Grigoriev paintings, circa 1935 which sold for $1.26 million (estimate $500,000.00 - $700,000.00).

Sotheby's representatives appeared to be pleased with the results, stating “We are very excited and encouraged by the results of today’s sale. It was the first test of the season and we saw a great depth of bidding across a number of different collecting areas. Certainly, the market is selective, but in some instances, we saw works double and triple their estimates. If you consider these results alongside the more than $12 million achieved for Russian works in last November’s Impressionist and Modern sales in New York, and the more than $37 million brought in London in December, it’s clear that the market for Russian Art remains buoyant.”