Russian Money Feeds International Art Boom

MOSCOW (Agence France-Presse)—Auction houses, art dealers and cutting-edge artists are descending on Moscow as a growing number of wealthy Russians lavish their money on the international art market.

"This is one of the fastest-growing markets we've ever seen," Mark Poltimore, deputy chairman of Sotheby's, said this month at a ceremony to announce the opening of the auction house's first Moscow office.

A recent viewing in Moscow of art coming up for auction at Sotheby's in London included works by Claude Monet and Andy Warhol, estimated to be worth a total of at least $100 million.

The Sotheby's opening followed a Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art in March. Later in May, the Moscow World Fine Art Fair opens its doors to an expected 45,000 visitors in Eastern Europe's capital of conspicuous consumption.

But some art experts believe the flow of Russian money is going towards vanity purchases and short-term investments that are distorting the value of the art in the eyes of genuine collectors.

"Although the market is expanding, it's still a handful of oligarchs who are calling the shots," said Alberto Isequilla, a Paris-based private art dealer who has been in the business since 1981 and often travels to Moscow.

"There's a lot of money, a lot of uneducated money," Isequilla said, giving the example of little-known Russian 19th century landscape paintings fetching astronomical sums, compared to more complicated abstract art.

The boom has been particularly arresting in the case of Russian art, with Sotheby's reporting sales reaching an unprecedented $153 million last year—from just $9 million in 2001.

Christie's also had a record-breaking year for Russian art sales in 2006, and said on its Web site that the sector "continues to be one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of the international art market."

One of the main buyers driving the boom is Pyotr Aven, president of Alfa Bank and owner of a wide selection of 20th century Russian avant-garde art displayed at his country house outside Moscow.

Another is oil magnate Viktor Vekselberg, who famously purchased nine bejeweled Faberge eggs from the Forbes family in the United States in 2004 and promptly donated them to the Russian state.

In Russia, the idea of "repatriation" has a special sentimental value as many works of art were dispersed around the world during the country's 20th century upheavals.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has become much richer on the back of high oil and gas prices and there is a greater tinge of nationalism as the country reasserts itself on the international stage.

"Over the past few years, we have been part of repatriating many works of art to the Russian people and to Russian collectors," said Bill Ruprecht, president of Sotheby's, which arranged the sale of Faberge eggs to Vekselberg.

But some cash-strapped Russian museum officials complain that the public rarely gets to see the artwork, which often goes straight into the vaults of newly-rich Russians.

"Our new Russians are not so educated in art. They're just investing in Russian art, they're not collecting it," said Zinaida Bonami, deputy director of the prestigious Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.

Sotheby's experts argue that Russian buyers are in fact returning to a tradition interrupted by the 1917 Bolshevik revolution of vast art collections held by the tsars and tycoons of imperial Russia.

At the Sotheby's opening, Philip Hook, head of the impressionist and modernist department, spoke of Russian buyers "reconnecting with their past" in the art world, but also acknowledged the importance of hard cash.

Pointing to an Andy Warhol painting from 1981 depicting a green and blue dollar sign against a red background, Hook grinned: "We're at the meeting point between art and money."