Courtesy Sotheby's

Vasili Polenov’s "Egyptian girl" (1876) sold for £1.05 million, almost triple its high estimate of £350,000.

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky Mikhail Larionov Vassili Polenov Russian Art Passes First Test of the Season at Sotheby’s Russian Art Market to Face First Big Test of 2009 London: Russian Paintings Artist Dossier: Natalia Goncharova Russian Harvest

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The strongest result was for Sotheby’s sale of imperial royal presents from the collection of the German princess HRH Monika, Princess of Hanover, Countess zu Solms-Laubach. Ninety-four of 100 lots sold for a total of £1.95 million, surpassing the high estimate of £1.1 million. The other three sales — another at Sotheby’s and one each at Christie’s and Bonhams — did significantly worse, with fewer than two thirds of the lots finding buyers. In total, Sotheby’s earned £16.1 million, Christie’s £3 million, and Bonham’s £1.7 million.

The result marks a sharp break in what had been nine years of gains in the Russian art market. Sotheby’s sales in the category totaled $6 million in 2000, as compared to $180 million earned last year.

The sales were influenced by the failure of several top lots to sell, including Ivan Aivazovsky’s View of Constantinople and the Bosphorus (1845) at Sotheby’s, for which bidding reached only £2.4 million (low estimate £2.5 million), and, at Christie's, a 1766 silver tureen (low estimate £400,000).

“We’re at an awkward moment where the market doesn’t want to buy at the old prices, and sellers don’t want to accept the new reality,” said Ivan Samarine, a London-based dealer.

At Christie’s sale of Faberge works, porcelain, and Imperial pieces, about 60 percent of the 242 lots sold. The top earner was an 1870 diamond-studded St. Anne military medal of honor made by Nicholls and Plincke in St. Petersburg, which went to a European collector for £265,000, against a high estimate of £280,000.

At Bonhams, just one third of the 244 lots offered managed to sell. None of the top lots sold, and the house earned less than one third its low estimate.

At its evening sale of 19th-century and 20th-century Russian paintings, Sotheby’s sold 59 percent of the 55 lots for a total of £14.1 million, against a pre-sale low estimate of £17.5 million. The top lot was Mikhail Larionov’s painting Reclining Nude (1906-07), which fetched £1.38 million, (est. £1.2–1.5 million). Three other Larionov paintings failed to sell.

The evening’s biggest surprise was Vasili Polenov’s 1876 Egyptian girl, which earned £1.05 million, almost triple its high estimate of £350,000. The result was a record at auction for the artist.