Preview of Mid Season Russian Art Sales in London

This week Sotheby's and and Chritie's will be holding their mid season Russian sales in London. With Sotheby's on the 8th and 9th, and Christies on the 9th. I will report the results here after they are released by Sotheby's and Christie's. Again, it seems expectations are still rather low when compared to sales of last year. Although, I do believe the markets in general have stabilized to a certain degree and perhaps are starting to turn around.

Mike Collett-White of Reuters ran a good preview to the sale, stating Pared-down Russian art sales in London next week will test of the strength of the market, and more particularly the appetite of super-wealthy buyers from the former Soviet Union, amid global economic turmoil.

Russian buyers were instrumental in sending values for rare works of all categories of art soaring in recent years, and their interest has helped underpin the weakening fine art market since the recession struck.

Next week Sotheby's and Christie's hold "mid-season" sales of Russian and Ukrainian art, and the pre-auction estimates underline how much the market has shrunk in the last 12 months.

Sotheby's in London holds a series of sales centering around the evening auction on Monday and expects to raise 15-22 million pounds ($24-35 million) overall, compared with pre-sale estimates of 29-41 million pounds at the same time in 2008.

The actual amount raised in June 2008 was 39.7 million pounds, including buyer's premium.

Jo Vickery, head of the Russian art department in London, acknowledged that the economic and political background this year was "so different" from last, but added:

"Collecting is a passion, and we've concentrated particularly in this collection on works that have come out of private collections and are fresh to the market.

"In Russian art, we're still re-discovering works that were lost and are now coming to the market for the first time," she told Reuters at Sotheby's showrooms, where the works to be auctioned were on display.

To read the full Reuters article, click HERE.