ART: Focus on Russian Art

Katherine Jentleson of Art Research Technologies has just published the latest edition of the Art Report, with a focus on Russian art.  The report focuses on next weeks upcoming sales in London along with data from previous sales.

As the ART report notes, the sales will have over 800 items of Russian art works with estimates of near $60 million. Based upon the spring Russian sales in NY expectations are high for the London market. The full reports, which are subscription based has about 8-10 pages of analysis of the Russian market, estimated performance, artist to watch, guide to artists on offer (which gives the average prices and average mid-estimates for arrtists offered in the sale), and commentary on Ilya Repin.

ART reports

NEXT WEEK IN LONDON, Christie's, Sotheby's and MacDougall's are expecting to bring in upwards of $61 million for more than 800 Russian works of art. So far in 2011, Christie's and Sotheby's have generated more sales of Russian art than they did over the same period last year. At the April sessions in New York, the houses sold nearly $13 million worth of Russian fine art -- 60% more than they did in April 2010. The average price of a painting sold at the April 2011 sales ($166,278) was 49% greater than the average price of a painting sold in April 2010, and two paintings sold for more than $1 million, whereas none did last spring.

In next week's sales the houses are pumping up the value even more. They are offering about the same number of lots as they did last year, but their catalogues feature more high-end pieces: The average mid-estimate on a June 2011 Russian lot is 40% higher than it was last year, and three lots are expected to achieve multi-million dollar prices compared to only one last June. Ilya Repin's A Parisian Cafe, which Christie's expects to sell for $4.9 million to $8.2 million on June 6th (see this edition's Cover Lot Commentary for more), carries the highest estimate in a Russian sale since 2007 when Natalia Goncharova's Bluebells was expected to bring $6.3 million to $10.4 million. Christie's Repin aside, Sotheby's is offering lots at higher price points than its competitors this June: Overall, its average mid-estimate is 40% greater than Christie's and 108% greater than MacDougall's.

To subscribe to the ART Report, click HERE.

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