Indian Art Soars, Russian Art Disappoints at Christie's

LONDON—Francis Newton Souza's painting Birth broke an auction record for Indian modern and contemporary art at Christie's yesterday, selling for £1.27 million ($2.5 million) on a pre-sale high estimate of £600,000, reports Bloomberg. Of the 111 lots in the South Asian art sale, which brought in £5.4 million, beating its £4.7 million high estimate, 12 set auction records.

The auction house's sale of Russian paintings, Faberge, military regalia, silver and porcelain the same day didn't do as well, tallying well below its pre-sale estimate of £13.1–19.2 million with only £11.3 million in sales. Only 66 percent of the 298 items on offer, and three of the top 10 lots, sold.

"Rich Russians aren't stupid," said Katya Dolgova, a Moscow-based art dealer. "You can get a Matisse or Monet for two to four million dollars, so why spend that money on a Goncharova?"

The sale's three top lots were Ivan Shishkin's 1889 Mast Pine Forest in Viatka Province, which sold to a Russian buyer for £1.38 million, twice its top estimate of £600,000, and two works by Petr Konchalovsky, which both fell within their estimated ranges. Several imperial military items sold for several times their high estimates.

Among the unsold works were top lots by record-setting avant-garde painter Natalia Goncharova — 1906's Crucifixion (est. £1.5–2.5 million) — and her husband, Mikhail Larionov — two works estimated in the mid-to-high six-figure range.

According to Bloomberg, many dealers and collectors said Christie's estimates on Russian art were too high.