Christie’s 2,000 pounds Russian artwork sold for just 10 pounds

LONDON: Christie���s International sold for 10 pounds ($15.40) an artwork earmarked to fetch 2,000 pounds at its auction of Russian art in London, summing up the mood at Wednesday���s sale which missed the low forecast by almost half.

Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky���s hand shot up when auctioneer James Bruce-Gardyne, exasperated by the salesroom���s cold response all day, gestured toward the piece ���Troika Leaving the Farmstead��� and asked, ���Will anyone give me 10 pounds?���

���It was the bargain of the century,��� said a triumphant Lobanov-Rostovsky, 73, a prince and one of the most
prominent Russian art collectors in Europe whose collection with former wife Nina was bought by a Kremlin-controlled foundation in St Petersburg earlier this year.

In addition to the hammer price, he paid a 3 pounds commission on the undated ink-on-paper picture by an unidentified Russian artist.

Christie���s couldn���t confirm if it���s the cheapest lot the company has ever sold. Lobanov-Rostovsky���s new purchase was one of 117 Russian 19th- and 20th-century artworks, or 55% of lots offered, that Christie���s sold for a combined ��7.9 million Wednesday. The company���s pre-sale low estimate was ��14.5 million.

The auction caps one of the most dismal weeks of Russian-art sales in London in nearly a decade, marked by unsold lots and missed targets. Dealers say the results show the nine-year boom in Russian-art prices, spurred by billionaires like Viktor Vekselberg and fuelled by record oil and metal prices, is over.

Christie���s total for the week was 10.93 million pounds, compared with its own low estimate of 18.86 million pounds and last year���s 39.1 million pounds. Sotheby���s, Christie���s biggest rival, tallied 25.2 million pounds this week, against its pre-sale forecast of more than 30 million pounds, and last year���s 38.7 million pounds.

The priciest lot at Christie���s auction Wednesday was Natalia Goncharova���s undated modernist painting, ���Still Life With Watermelons,��� which went to a Moscow collector in the salesroom for 1.55 million pounds, against the low forecast of ��1.5 million.

Most lots that sold went for less than or near the low estimates. Works that didn���t sell include Goncharova���s ���Abstract Composition With Palette,��� with a low estimate of 4,00,000 pounds, and Konstantin Somov���s 1938 ���Open Door on a Garden,��� which had a low estimate of 5,00,000 pounds.
���If you still have money, now is the time to buy,��� said Natalia Kournikova, a Moscow dealer and collector, who bought several top lots this week. ���There are bargains to be had. A lot of fine art works went for inexpensive prices.���

MacDougall Art, an auction house that only sells Russian paintings, said the most-expensive item it sold at its sale of Russian post-war art yesterday was Oleg Tselkov���s 1988 ���Boy with Balloons,��� which fetched ��2,38,000, against the low estimate of 2,00,000 pounds.
MacDougall���s declined to release a figure for the percentage of lots sold, though buyers who stayed for the entire sale said no more than 20 percent found buyers.

Its sales totalled 1 million pounds on a low estimate of 3.5 million pounds. ���Buyers are putting money into 19th and early 20th-century art as a means of safekeeping, whereas post-war art is considered a bit risky,��� said Mark Kelner, a Washington DC-based contemporary-art collector and dealer.

Dealers and collectors say auction houses have unrealistic estimates that don���t reflect the current economic weakness.
���The market is dictated by the buyers and not by the sellers,��� said Alexis de Tiesenhausen, head of Russian art at Christie���s. ���Considering the new financial reality, estimates will certainly be lower next time.���

Christie���s may lower the estimates on the pieces it offers at its next Russian art auction in New York in April
by up to 20%, said de Tiesenhausen.