Results: London Mid Season Russian Art Sales

This past week both Christie's and Sotheby's London locations held their mid season Russian art sales. Expectations were a bit subdued, but the sales were organized and operated with current market conditions in mind.

Christie's held its sale on the 9th offering 198 lots. Of the 198 lots 128 sold. for a sell through rate of 65%. The sales total, including buyers premium was $6.2 million. Chrisite's specialists stated the sale was smaller in volume than the corresponding auction last year, there continues to be a great hunger in the market for works of Russian art which are particularly rare, fresh to the market and of exceptional quality. Today's sale saw eight of the top ten lots sell above their high estimate as a result of fierce bidding from predominantly private collectors.

Sotheby's held several Russian sales, one was for Russian Works of Art, Faberge and Icons, the other was a day sale for Russian Paintings. The Russian Works of Art sale had 146 lots offered with 97 selling for a sell through rate of 66.4%. The total sale generated $7.68 million, including a pair of Imperial Porcelain Palace Vases (see image) which sold for $4.3 million (estimate of $1.98 million to $2.97 million). That is a rather large percentage of the total sale figure.

The day painting sale generated $6.8 million including buyers premium. The painting sale offer 156 lots with 101 selling for a sell through rate of 64.7%. The evening sale generated $12.5 million in sales including buyers premium, with 27 lots offered and 17 selling for a 63% buy through rate.

Sotheby's also held a Russian contemporary art sale ($1.48 million in sales) and a Russian and Continental books and manuscripts sale ($1.7 million in sales).

If my math and sales are correct, Sotheby's had a Russian week with just over $30 million in total sales including buyers premiums.

Sotheby's specialists stated The first test of the Russian art market in London this year, our June sales have provided us with new and important information about the state an direction of this market, and a barometer for assembling future auctions in these new conditions.

Whilst it is clear that our clients are more selective than ever before in the new reality, they are prepared to compete tenaciously for works of high quality that are both fresh to the market and rare, particularly for traditional and classical art of the 19th and early-20th centuries. The rediscovered Brodsky and the painting by Kustodiev represented unprecedented saleroom opportunities to collectors and the prices achieved - driven by competition from several bidders on each lot - set new auction records. Attractively estimated works of art with superlative provenance, for example the collection of paintings by Gorbatov elicited tremendous interest; the section was over 75% sold by lot and totaled more than £1.85 million.

Overall, we are extremely pleased with the sale series total and sell-through rate achieved and with the activity we saw from the CIS which demonstrate that the Russian Art Market in the adjusted reality is solid and healthy.