Is the Moscow Art Scene Selling Out?

MOSCOW (The Times (London))—

The Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art kicks off this week, and the frenzied buying atmosphere has insiders wondering if the art scene is “selling its soul,” according to The Times (London).

Art has become increasingly trendy here, Moscow gallery owner Olga Sviblova told the newspaper.

“Russian women used only to like diamonds,” she said. “But a lot of these women were too intelligent just to sit at home in their jewels. In the ’80s, every oligarch who wanted to occupy his wife bought her a beauty salon. In the ’90s, he got her a shop. But now art has replaced the diamonds. What every 21st-century Russian woman wants is a gallery and a foundation.”

What this means for the future of Russian art is anyone’s guess. The Times recalls that only 30 years ago Sotheby’s staged its landmark contemporary Russian art auction, where dealers were snapping up canvases. “But a couple of years later, the whole thing had crashed,” the newspaper writes. “Will this boom-and-bust pattern repeat?”

Curators and collectors, though, are optimistic. “I can tell you that the price of some of my artists went up by five times last year,” said Igor Markin, who is poised to open Moscow’s first private museum.

“I don’t think I’ll regret buying Russian work,” added another collector. “I mean, it’s better to have a picture than a few stock certificates on your wall.”

The Times (London): What Russian women want: a gallery