Results: Sotheby's NY Russian Sale

Was it a sign of a softening market, or perhaps a volcano in Iceland.  Reported results from the recent Russian sale at Sotheby's in NY are mixed.  There were only about 30 bidders in the room, and 30% of the lots failed to sell.  Some of this is blamed on the inability of Europeans to fly from Europe because of the closed airports and canceled flights because of ash from the volcano in Iceland.

With few attending, many items were sold at very reasonable prices, although, the private collections within the sale did do well.  The sale totaled $13.6 million, falling into the mid range of the pre sale estimates of $10.7 million to $15.1 million. The private Faberge collection of Frances Jones sold 98% of its lots and contributed $1.8 million toward the sale total against pre sale estimates of $1.2 million. The top lot was a bronze by Evgeny Lanceray (1848-86) selling to a Russian collector for $326,500 (see image).

Even though the bought in lot ratio was high, the results still fell within the pre sale estimate, and I wonder if all who wanted to attend could, the sale would have been better.

Katya Kazakina of Bloomberg reported on the sale

A day before the sale, Sotheby’s sent out an e-mail to its clients confirming that the New York auctions will proceed as planned despite “recent travel complications across Europe.”

“People didn’t want to wait till the last moment or risk missing their flights to New York,” said Andrei Chervichenko, Moscow-based collector of Faberge and former owner of Spartak soccer club. “That definitely had an impact on today’s prices. With fine art, you have to touch things, examine things before buying expensive works.”

Seven-Hour Wait

Chervichenko had to wait seven hours at the airport before boarding a plane to New York on Monday. He took advantage of the often muted bidding and bought several works from the Jones estate, including a carved elephant for $31,250 and a Faberge nephrite box with gold and jeweled lock and hinges for $15,000.

“The prices are much lower than they used to be,” he said. “It’s a great time to buy, especially the pieces that are not so obvious.”

To read the Bloomberg article, click HERE.