Results: Christie's London Russian Art

Most of the news coming out of London on the Christies's Russian art sale focused on the Parisian cafe scene by Ilya Repin, and rightfully so. As I posted yesterday on the painting, it sold for $7.4 million including buyers premium and set a new world auction record for the artist.

For the rest of the sale and beyond paintings and Faberge, the results do not appear to be nearly as strong. Christie's reports the sale totaled $18.9 million including buyers premiums. The sale offered 327 lots, with only 191 selling for a very uninspiring 58% buy through rate. This could mean the quality at the sale was not very deep, or the estimates and reserves were too high, or both. The sale sold a decent 87% by value, which is strong given the number of buy ins. The paintings sold at a strong 92% by value and the Faberge items sold at a very strong 96% by value.

It again appears that quality brought strong prices, and the more average suffered or did not sell as expected. Of the top ten lots four sold within the pre sale estimates, and 6 went above the estimates. The range of the top ten went from the $7.4 million paid for the Repin to #10 at $297,612.00 for an Imperial charger (see image). There was some active trade buying within the top 10. Many had high expectation for the sales this week in London of Russian art.

Perhaps the Sotheby's sales will see more active buying.

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