MOSCOW, December 16, Anastasia Silkina. It’s not only museums that can boast impressive collections. There are many people in the world who, following the call of their hearts or as an investment, acquire masterpieces and rarities. And sometimes they sell them, usually at auctions. What is in particular demand there is the material.
What's in the price
People are willing to pay the most for paintings at Russian auctions, says Yegor Molchanov, head of the ARTinvestment project dedicated to the Russian art market. They are closely followed by rare books. For example, the first editions of famous authors.
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“If the most expensive books go for 10-15 million rubles, then paintings go for 20, 30, 50, 100 million, and there are many more buyers,” emphasizes expert.
The works of artists account for 80-85 percent of sales, the organizers of the contemporary art auction Vladey confirmed. Moreover, buyers prefer figurative painting, which has become a global trend.
According to Molchanov, now the classics are attracting maximum attention on the Russian art market: Vasily Polenov, Ivan Aivazovsky, Ivan Shishkin, Valentin Serov, Isaac Levitan. And they are the most expensive.
How prices are set for masterpieces
For an auction, good provenance is important—the history of ownership of a work of art.
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"In the West, when someone’s famous collection is sold, the value increases greatly. And we also. For example, if things come from the collection of George Costakis, Solomon Schuster, there is an extra charge,” notes the head of ARTinvestment.
Some collectors are such bright personalities that objects of art and rarities become inseparable from their name, adds Ekaterina Kukhto, director of the 12th Chair auction house. In particular, books and manuscripts from the library of entrepreneur Sergei Diaghilev, paintings from the collection of ballet dancer Serge Lifar.
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“A very recent example is the jewelry of singer Lyudmila Zykina. Lot «My earrings» went for two million 300 thousand rubles. The shackle ring of the Decembrist Prince Evgeniy Obolensky, interesting precisely for its provenance, was bought for six million rubles. Now the attention of collectors is focused on items from the archives of the founder of the Museum of Personal Collections, Ilya Samoilovich Zilbershtein,” says the head of the auction house.
Rarity determines the price and the uniqueness of the thing.
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“Not everyone knows that Joseph Brodsky drew — on books, in letters and separate sheets. At the auction in support of the magazine «Star» this year we sold his drawing for 3.8 million rubles, and the very rare book itself with the drawing and the poet’s autograph for 2.2 million rubles, now this is his most expensive book. All these items belonged to Brodsky’s friends before they were put up for auction,” clarifies Kuhto.
Auction lots often remain in Russia, because it is impossible to export cultural property outside the country without permission from the Ministry of Culture. There are also difficulties with international payment. But the geography of auctions has expanded beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg.
No more expensive: da Vinci, Picasso, Modigliani
So far the most expensive work of art in the world, sold under the hammer , — “Salvator Mundi” by Leonardo da Vinci. In 2017, the painting was purchased at Christie’s for $450.3 million, according to media reports, by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.
This masterpiece was first presented to the general public in 2011 at an exhibition at the London National Gallery. Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev purchased it for $127.5 million, but decided to sell it a few years later.
After the record deal, doubts grew louder that the work really belonged to the brush of a Renaissance genius . It was previously reported that the painting was in the collection of King Charles I of England, but now experts began to mention this with the careful clarification of “possibly.” In addition, at the exhibition in 2019, the Louvre refused to indicate “Salvator Mundi” as a painting by da Vinci, which is why the owner refused to exhibit it.
Pablo Picasso's painting «Algerian Women (Version O)» sold for $179.4 million at Christie's in 2015.
The founder of Cubism created a series of 15 paintings “Algerian Women” based on the paintings of Eugene Delacroix. The paintings were marked with letters from A to O. “Version O,” painted in 1955, long belonged to the famous American collector Victor Ganz, and then it was acquired by the British art dealer Libby Howe for an unnamed Saudi client. The current owner also prefers incognito.
Completing the top three is “Reclining Nude” by Amedeo Modigliani, sold in the same 2015 on the same site for $170.4 million to a buyer from China.
The image of a dark-haired woman on red was commissioned from the Italian artist by his friend, the poet Leopold Zborovsky. In 1917, the work was at the Modigliani exhibition, which was closed a few hours later: the nudity was outraged.
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