Market-leader Sotheby's Russian sales raised about £19 million total. The Romanov heirlooms were 100% sold, which was remarkable, but the evening sale of prime lots must have been disappointing: it was only 51% sold by lot - last year it raised £14 million, this year £4 million. Which makes the comment by one Kathryn Hopkins in the Guardian, implying that the market has improved improved massively year-on-year, particularly dim-witted (Guardian):
The sale was a far cry from last year, when demand for art dampened in the midst of the credit crunch, and auctioneer Christie's failed to sell a Francis Bacon self-portrait in New York.
For further comparison: two years ago Sotheby's November sales totalled $80 million (£39 million) over two days. So in the two years from pre- to post-Crisis, the market leader's turnover has dropped by about 50%.
Sotheby's results in detail: Romanov Heirlooms (Sotheby's); Russian Art Evening Sale (Sotheby's); Russian Paintings Day Sale (Sotheby's); Russian Works of Art, Faberge and Icons (Sotheby's).
Macdougall's icons sale made £830,000. Macdougall's paintings sale made £8.6 million; top lots were Roerich (£1,128,000 - top price of the week) and Serebryakova (£1,071,000); results in detail (Macdougall's).
Macdougall's ended neck-and-neck with Christies on overall turnover.
Bonhams 30 November sale made £1.9 million; top-lots were by Aivazovsky (£378,000) and Feshin (£168,000) (Bonhams). Results in detail (Bonhams).
Christies 1-2 December sale made £8.9 million; top price was for Roerich, £993,000; results in detail (Christies). Christies 3 December South Kensington sale made £572,000; results in detail (Christies).
Further round-up (John Varoli/Bloomberg):
“The market has two locations and realities,” said Ildar Galeyev, owner of Galeyev Gallery in Moscow. “There’s the Moscow market, where we don’t see signs of recovery since the crisis began. Then there’s London where we see the market growing. Russians prefer to buy in London for a number of reasons, for instance, they have more trust in the major auction houses.”