Landau also suggests keeping those auction prices in perspective. Take Jawlensky’s Schokko, the painting that fetched more than £9 million ($18.6 million) in February. “I think it’s a fair bet that the buyer was Russian, and the same for the Marc,” he says. “When an auction house knows there’s a market—they probably had one or two bidders—they put out a big guarantee and they draw out material. But does it mean the whole market doubled? I don’t think so.” Although Sotheby’s won’t comment on the identity of the buyers, those present at the February auction note that the winning bid for the Marc came via phone to Mikhail Kamensky, Sotheby’s newly appointed Moscow head.

Russians’ interest in Expressionism parallels their enthusiasm for Fauvism several generations ago. “They look at these works, and it’s very much in their soul,” says Rumbler. “It touches them—the expressionism combined with the incredible strength of color.” He adds that the new Russian buyers are approaching collecting in the same manner as their forebears Sergey Schukin and Ivan Morosov, who at the beginning of the 20th century looked beyond Russia’s borders for artistic treasures. Those collections, which were nationalized after the 1917 revolution, helped stock the country’s great museums.

Coming off their strong February performance, neither Christie’s nor Sotheby’s had, as of press time, any potential record setters in their spring New York sales. But both Rumbler and Newman are hopeful about the summer auctions in London and the fall ones in New York. Getting consignments, says Rumbler, “is a result of long relationships with people who bought these pictures 30 to 50 years ago.” When February, now the primary month for German Expressionist offerings, comes around again—well, that’s when they’re hoping to rewrite the records.

"The New Blue Chip" originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2008 Table of Contents.