Russian Art

Courtesy Christie's

At Christie's, the pearl-encrusted Rothschild Fabergé egg made £8,980,500 ($18.5 million), becoming the most expensive Russian art object ever sold at auction.

Courtesy MacDougall Auctions

Petr Konchalovsky's "Malvy" (1921) fetched a record £1,035,850 ($2.1 million) at MacDougall's.

Carl Faberge Mikhail Larionov Liubov Popova Tate Pats Itself on the Back, Plans Ahead Russian Prince Gives Art to Pushkin Indian Art Soars, Russian Art Disappoints at Christie's Artist Dossier: Natalia Goncharova Art Athina Overcomes Obstacles

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Although the majority of lots came from private American and European collections, about 90 percent of the buyers were citizens of or émigrés from Russia and other former Soviet republics. Russian collectors have been riding a booming economy fueled by high prices for such commodities as oil, natural gas, steel and aluminum. The country’s population of millionaires, defined in terms of U.S. dollars, is estimated to be 120,000 strong and growing by 15 percent a year. Many own or are building large residences and apartments in Moscow, as well as in Europe and America. That’s a lot of walls and shelves to fill.

“At the moment the demand is so strong that even questionable or unexciting pieces of art are being swept up,” says Ana Maricevic, managing partner at Maricevic Fine Art, in Moscow. While interest in 19th-century art remains high, early 20th-century modern masters commanded the highest prices at all three houses.

On November 26 and 27, Sotheby’s sold a record £38,653,450 ($79.9 million) worth of Russian paintings, Orthodox icons and Fabergé objects, with 19 lots going for more than $1 million each. Nine of the top 10 lots in the firm’s inaugural evening sale in this category were works by modern artists, led by Amazons of the avant-garde Natalia Goncharova and Lyubov Popova. The latter’s 1915 Cubist collage Still Life with Tray, consigned from an American collection (est. £1.5–2 million; $3.1–4.1 million), sold for an artist’s high of £1,700,500 ($3.5 million).

Sotheby’s most anticipated offerings were nine works from the Schreiber Collection of avant-garde art, a corpus accumulated over 35 years by New Yorkers Phyllis and Samuel Schreiber. However, five of the lots didn’t sell, including Mikhail Larionov’s Rayonist Dancer, from 1915 (est. £600–800,000; $1.2–1.7 million). At £3,044,500  ($6,287,197), the highest earner of the bunch—and of the evening—was Goncharova’s Bluebells, a circa 1909 floral still life with a section of the artist’s 1908 peasant scene Bleaching Canvas visible in the background (est. £3–5 million; $6.2–10.4 million).

“If the estimates on the Schreiber Collection had been lower, bidders might have jumped in, and they’d still have gotten a great price,” says Andrei Ruzhnikov, a partner at Aurora Fine Art Investments Fund, which is owned by oil billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. Another factor in the Goncharova’s relatively disappointing price was condition—it has a horizontal crease at the center that is clearly visible to the naked eye.

Christie’s five-day marathon of Russian auctions—including specialty sessions of icons, miniatures and rare books and manuscripts—made a combined total of £44,891,640 ($92.5 million). The two sales on November 28, of Russian works of art and important Russian paintings, were the main attraction, together bringing in £39,121,775 ($80.6 million). The house sold 80 percent of the 413 lots offered, with 12 of them fetching more than $1 million each.

As at Sotheby’s, early 20th-century works dominated the top ten. Yuri Annenkov’s Cubist mixed-media portrait of author Aleksandr Tikhonov, from 1922 (est. £900,000–1.2 million; $1.9–2.5 million), sold for a record £2,260,500 ($4.7 million). The European consignor had paid £110,000 ($171,000) for it at Christie’s London in 1989.

The star of the works of art session was a gold and pink Fabergé egg that had spent a century out of public view in the collection of the Paris-based Rothschilds (est. £6–9 million; $12.4–18.7 million). It achieved £8,980,500 ($18.5 million), making it the most expensive Russian object ever sold at auction. The buyer was Alexander Ivanov, director of the Russian National Museum, a private gallery in Moscow, which is building a public museum in that city.