Sotheby’s London Sale of Russian Art May Fetch $14.7 Million

May 19 (Bloomberg) — The durability and vitality of the market for
Russian art will face a test today when Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. hosts
its spring London sale, which the auction house expects to raise as
much as 8 million pounds ($14.7 million).

The outcome may signal the direction of the fledgling Russian art
market, a month after its New York office posted the biggest- ever
sale of Russian paintings and works of art, totaling $35.2 million.
Dealers and collectors, none of whom wanted to speak on the record
before the sale, are divided over whether the market has peaked or
will continue to climb.

The highlight of the Sotheby’s sale will probably be a group of five
paintings by the early 20th-century painter, Pyotr Konchalovsky
(1876-1956), consigned by the artist’s grandson, the Russian-born
Hollywood filmmaker, Andrei Konchalovsky.

Led by a 1912 painting called, “Still Life With Beer and Fish,” the
five works together may fetch between 880,000 and 1.24 million pounds,
according to the auction house’s estimates.

Other items on sale include paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky (1817- 1900),
Boris Grigoriev (1886-1939), Konstantin Makovsky(1839-1915) and Vasili
Vereshchagin (1842-1904). There are also several works by contemporary
artists such as Grisha Bruskin, Ilya Kabakov and Mikhail Chemiakin.

“The bulk of the material in the sale is characterized by its freshness
to the market, its provenance, fine condition and, of course, quality,”
said Joanna Vickery, head of Sotheby’s Russian department.

Faberge Sale

New York-based Sotheby’s created its Russian department in 1985, and
in 2004 it sold just over 20 million pounds worth of Russian art in
London alone. Sotheby’s also brokered the February 2004 sale of the
Forbes Faberge Collection to Russian oil magnate Viktor Vekselberg
for an undisclosed sum. Pre-auction estimates for the egg, which
had been set for auction, ranged from $80 million to $120 million,
the Forbes magazine Web site said.

The Russian art market has grown rapidly since 2000 when the price
of oil, and other commodities on which the Russian economy is based,
also began its rise to record levels. As long as those prices stay
high, some say art prices will remain vibrant.

“I think the market is strong, that it will remain high, and can
be developed further,” said Lord Mark Poltimore, chairman of 19th-
and 20th-century pictures at Sotheby’s.

Seascapes

Besides Konchalovsky, Sotheby’s is betting on a strong showing from
five paintings by the Russian-Armenian seascape painter, Aivazovsky.
His “Shipwreck” is expected to fetch as much as 750,000 pounds.
“Aivazovsky is very popular and doesn’t go out of fashion,” Vickery
said.

Also on sale is a work by one of Russia’s most prominent painters,
Vasili Polenov (1844-1927). His “Samaritan Women” is estimated at
400,000 to 600,000 pounds. The high price is probably less due to
quality than to the rarity of Polenov’s works, since most are in
museum collections in Russia.

Boris Grigoriev has come out of nowhere to emerge as one of the top
selling Russian artists. His “Breton Woman” is expected to go for
between 175,000 and 200,000 pounds, while his “Portrait of the Singer
Anna Sergeevna Sergeeva” has an estimate of 120,000 to 150,000 pounds,
though the paint on the latter work has cracked and fissured.

The works-of-art section has only a few strong pieces, most prominent
of which is an Imperial porcelain vase made by the Imperial Porcelain
Factory during the reign of Nicholas I (1796- 1855), a period when
their manufacture peaked in quality. That piece is expected to sell
for between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds.

An Imperial hardstone snuffbox from about 1890 by St. Petersburg
craftsman Carl Blank is expected to fetch 70,000 to 90,000 pounds.
The snuffbox was a gift from Czar Nicholas II (1868- 1918) to French
Foreign Minister Theophile Delcasse.