Collecting Russian Art

Costume design for Cleopatre - Leon Bakst 

The International Konstantinovsky Charitable Fund, headed by Vladimir Kozhin has purchased a collection of Russian theater and decorative art from 1880-1930s. The collection belonged to  Nina and Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky, who wanted the work to be returned to Russia. Prince Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky began collecting art in 1959 and in recent years has made a number of significant donations to various Russian museums. 

The collection is comprised of 810 watercolors, theater posters, drawings, and engravings. According to Bloomberg News, “Most of the works were made for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes that performed in Paris, and later Monte Carlo, from 1909 to 1929.”

The collection is currently being stored in Germany, but will go on display at the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Music this September.

Yesterday Sotheby’s released its review of the Russian art market. In it, they explained the slow pace of their auctions in early June as the product of an increasingly selective market. Here is an excerpt:

“The round of Russian art sales held in London in June presented another inflection point in the growth of the Russian art market. The volume of the sales continues to increase along with the over all value but these London auctions showed a maturing market where connoisseurship and quality won out over momentum.

Buyers resisted aggressive estimates and chose better quality objects from the sea of lots—nearly 1000—on offer. ‘There is so much choice now,’ says Lord Poltimore, Chairman of Sotheby’s Russia. ‘The market could absorb all of this material, in terms of price and quantity of lots, but the taste level is maturing very rapidly and we can see the middle of the market is getting softer.’ “

Click here for the full report. 

View From the Terrace, Gurzuf - Konstantin Korovin 

Christie’s and Sotheby’s Russian auctions earlier this June had mixed results. Sotheby’s sold just over $41 million, acceptably between the pre-sale estimate of $36-$52 million. Compared with their successes in recent months - Sotheby’s April auction exceeded its high estimate - the June sale was a change of pace. Fewer bidders attended the sale and fewer lots were bid on competitively. The same was true for Christie’s Russian sale on June 11th which missed its low estimate of $26 million pounds with a total of $22 million. Only 66% of the 298 lots sold. 

It’s unclear what’s behind the disappointing results of these auctions. Katya Dolgova, an art dealer in Moscow speculated that Russians are moving on to bigger and better things in the European art market. ”Rich Russians aren’t stupid. You can get a Matisse or Monet for two to four million dollars, so why spend that money on a Goncharova?” Cultural pride, however, seems to be an important part of the growing interest in Russian art. An interest in repatriating artwork has been one of the key motivating forces behind this boom. Last year, for example, billionaire Alisher Usmanov purchased the entire collection of Cellist Mstislav Rostpovich and donated it to the Russian government. Could Russian and Ukranian buyers have simply lost interest in their artistic heritage? Why, if European art holds such an appeal to this group of buyers would they have waited until now to focus on collecting it? Other dealers suspect that Christie’s estimates were overly ambitious. 

In spite of the mixed overall results of the auctions, some individual pieces sold very well. At Sotheby’s Konstantin Korovin’s View from the Terrace, Gurzuf, sold for  $2,985,217  (well above its high estimate of $1,600,000) and set record for the artist at auction. At Christie’s, Ivan Shishkin’s Mast Pine Forest in Viatka Province sold for $2,761,900, more than double its high estimate of  $1,200,000.

Future auctions will make clear whether the results of these auctions are an anomaly, or the beginning of a trend. 

Update:

On June 24th at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern sale, alongside work by Monet and countless other notable European artists, Natalia Goncharova’s Les Fleurs (1912) sold for $10,965,900 to a Russian buyer, setting a record for the artist at auction. The great disappointment of Christie’s auction earlier this June was that Goncharova’s Crucifixion (est. $4,984,500)  failed to sell. Any doubts about the future of this artist, however, have been cleared. The sale of Les Fleurs seems to debunk the speculation by some that Russian buyers are losing interest in Russian work, and turning their attention to European art.  Vladimir Baranoff-Rossine’s The Rhythm also sold very well, fetching $5,383,260 with fees. 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be donating $170 million to the Pushkin Art Museum over the next three years.  

From Bloomberg News:

‘President Medvedev has been deeply involved in getting this support, for which we are very grateful,’ Irina Antonova, the museum’s director, said in an interview. The money, given over three years, ‘will help us expand and reconstruct the museum as part of plans to mark our centenary in 2012.’

The new space planned by Foster will be used for more exhibition space, conservation laboratories, state-of-the-art storage, a library and rooms for classical music concerts.”

Click here for the full story.

Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s will be holding two auctions of Russian paintings in June. On June 9th 50 lots will be auctioned at the Russian Art Evening sale and on the tenth 379 lots will be auctioned in two sessions at the Russian Paintings sale. Featured artists include Vasili Vasilievich Vereshchagin, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky, Ilya Efimovich Repin, Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin, and Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky.

Paris by Night - Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin

The auctions feature an interesting series -five in all- of nighttime street scenes in Paris by Korovin, and an interesting study by Elena Luksch-Makovsky of Repin’s students (below).

Repin’s Students, St. Petersburg, Somov, Kustodiev, Murashko, Maliavin, and Chmarov -Elena Luksch-Makovsky

Other highlights include Aivazovsky’s Pushkin and Countess Raevskaya by the Sea near Gurzuf and Partenit which is expected to sell for up to $3.5 Million, and Konstantin Korovin’s View from the Terrace, Gurzuf, valued at 1.6 million.

Heritage Auctions

Newcomer Texas based Heritage Auctions (http://www.ha.com) will be holding their first Russian Fine Art Auction on the 4th of June which will include works by the Russian master artists: Mikhail Konstantinovich Klodt, Nikolai Timkov, Konstantin Makovsky, David Burliuk, Konstantin Yuon and Ivan Kliun. According to their website “Heritage’s inaugural auction of Russian fine art follows their sale of Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky’s remarkable Pushkin at the Water’s Edge which they sold in Dallas last October for a total of $1.6 million. With many noted Russian artists’ works in this sale estimated at well over $200,000 each, this auction promises to set records for American-owned auction houses that are entering the exciting Russian fine art market”

On May 12, Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg will open the art collection of Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya to the public. Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov purchased the collection in September from Sotheby’s for $72 million. The palace will be the permanent home of the collection, which includes decorative arts and 18th and 19th century paintings. Featured artists include Valentin Serov, Nikolai Roerich, Karl Brullov and others.

Birch Grove- Arkhip Kuidzhi 1881

Sotheby’s

The results of Sotheby’s two day sale of Russian art are in. Of 325 lots, 204 sold for a total of $46 million. The first session of 19th and early 20th century art accounted for the great majority of sales, totaling $30,400,050. The top lot of the auction set a record for the artist Arkhip Kuindzhi. His “Birch Grove” (above) sold for $3.1 million. Other important sales include Ivan Shishkin’s Forest Landscape, which sold for $847,400, and Ivan Aivazovsky’s Distributing Supplies, The Relief Ship, and The Arrival of Columbus’ Flotilla ($2, 3, and 1.5 million respectively).

As with most Russian Auctions held at major auction houses, most buyers were either Russian or Ukranian, but Sonya Bekkerman, head of Sotheby’s Russian department, drew attention to a respectable number of U.S. buyers as well.

Christie’s

“Christie’s two-session sale of Russian art on April 18 was a much more modest affair than Sotheby’s three-session extravaganza earlier in the week. Christie’s sale included only 294 lots, versus Sotheby’s 539, and had virtually no icons to speak of, but it earned an impressive $17,595,738, well above pre-sale expectations of $9–12 million. Altogether 253 lots found buyers, a solid total of 86 percent both by dollar amount and by number of lots.” - Artinfo.com (click here for full article)

The Forest Clearing - Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin 1896

There are three Russian Art auctions coming up in April:

Christie’s will be holding their Russian auction on April 18th at Rockefeller Plaza in New York. Aleksandr Iakovlev’s, Loge de Théâtre à Pékin, is expected to be the top lot. Other highlights include Ivan Shishkin’s, The Forest Clearing (above), and Konstantin Makovskii’s Russian Beauty.

Link to online catalog

Sotheby’s will be auctioning 550 works of Russian Art on April 15-16 in New York. This past Tuesday, at the State History Museum in Moscow, they unveiled 30 of the most exciting pieces from their upcoming auctions. The preview included work by Ivan Aivazovsky, Arkhip Kuindzhy, and Ivan Shishkin. Shishkin’s In The Forest, is expected to sell for up to $2,000,000.

Link to online catalog

Cottage on the Lake - Mikhail Nesterov

Trinity International Auctions will be holding a sale of Russian, Old Master & European Art on April 12 in Avon Connecticut. The auction includes work by Konstantin Korovin, Mihail Nesterov, and Ivan Aivazovsky.

Link to online catalog

Rowan Berries on Blue* - Petr Konchalovsky 1947

Last year, Art Kapital, an auction house specializing in 19th and 20th century Russian and Ukrainian art opened in Kiev, Ukraine. Already it is making a name for itself in the world’s second largest Russian art market after Moscow. Alexander Tabalov, director of the auction house, has been collecting art for more than a decade. He has been a regular at Sotheby’s and Christie’s Russian art sales since 1999. “We want Art Kapital to be a serious, full-fledged auction house,” Tabalov told Bloomberg News last month. Art Kapital is well on its way. At Sotheby’s April auction last year in New York, Art Kapital’s general director walked away with several works, including the auction’s two top lots: “Vision of St. Sergius, When a Child” by Mikhail Nesterov, and Konstantin Makovsky’s “Happy Arcadia.” Tabalov now has a collection of over 200 paintings, including work by Issac Levitan, Ilya Repin, Konstantin Korovin, Petr Konchalovsky, and Constantin Somov.

Link to an article on Art Kapital’s most recent auction at The Art Newspaper.

*This painting was the top lot in Art Kapital’s auction last December. It sold for $506,000

Portrait of Liudmila Mamontova - Valentin Serov 1894

Russian business woman Marina Mamontova has opened an exhibition space in downtown Moscow for early twentieth century Russian art. According to Bloomberg news, the gallery, “will also function as a full-fledged cultural center that will organize art history lectures, exhibits of contemporary artists, publish art books, and sponsor concerts of early 20th century Russian music,” Bloomberg interviewed Mamontova in December:

“Russian art of the first half of the 20th century is still not well known, and the works sold at auction tend to disappear into private collections and are never seen again,” said Mamontova, “I want the public to have a chance to see these works, and to better appreciate this period of art.”

The current exhibition includes pre-soviet work by artists Valentin Serov and Mikhail Vrubel, and work by Soviet era artists Yevgeny Lanceray, Alexander Deineka, and Petr Konchalovsky among others.

Click here to see the full story on the opening at Bloomberg News.

Update 1/31

You can find a gallery of images from the opening of the gallery here.