Oligarch Andrei Melnichenko picks up his Monets (Times).
Oligarch Andrei Melnichenko picks up his Monets (Times).
Rich Russian collectors etc (FT).
Gordon B. Lankton's Museum of Russian Icons (MetroWest Daily News).
Charles Saatchi has bought a huge installation by Georgi Ostretsov from the show Laughterlife that opened last night at Paradise Row; rival collector Anita Zabludowicz has commissioned a similar piece.
An interview with photography collector and art dealer Alex Lachmann (Kommersant, in Russian).
Abramovich apparently bought a Giacometti sculpture at Art Basel. Bacon, Freud, Giacometti (I think they were chums, actually): the Existentialists of C20 art, as it were.
Sarah Thornton at Art Basel:
Roman Abramovich is a blessing for the art world,” said one high roller over drinks in the lobby of the Swissôtel in Basel after a long day at the fair. Whether or not the Russian oligarch bought a handful of Giacomettis off the Krugier stand didn’t seem to matter. The billionaire brought buzz. According to the Grand Cru grapevine, Abramovich, who is known to have an appetite for Lucian Freud, missed the opportunity to purify twelve million dollars on the artist’s Girl in Attic Doorway as, by the time the welcome newcomer got back to Bill Acquavella with a decision, the classy uptown dealer had already sold it to someone else.
She also has a few words from Viktor Pinchuk's chief curator, Petr Doroshenko (Artforum).
The International Konstantinovsky Charitable Foundation in St Petersburg has bought the Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky collection of Russian theatre art for "under $20 million" (John Varoli/Art Newspaper).
The Melnikov Garage has its gala opening on 12 June, featuring the singing of Amy Winehouse and an installation by Rafael Lozano Hemmer (John Varoli/Open Space, in Russian):
The entry of Ms Zhukova, backed by the enormous economic and political resources of Abramovich, into Russia’s contemporary art scene promises to be a pivotal point in the history of the local art market, and could start a boom in contemporary art sales for western galleries and dealers desperate to find new markets and stave off a crash. (...)
While there is no conclusive proof, the facts points to the involvement in Garage of major dealers such as Larry Gagosian. Ms Zhukova grew up in a family that has collected contemporary art for about a decade, and major western galleries know her well for some years now. Garage’s programming will be headed by Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst, a former director of the Gagosian Gallery in London. No matter what Garage might say it’s hard to believe that the art it displays won’t be for sale.
Well, that's all possible, of course. On the other hand: Dent-Brocklehurst has (a) left Gagosian and (b) has for several years worked independently with a wide variety of artists (see my report of a few days ago). What is more, several Russians are also in at the Garage: organisers of the Kabakov show Marat Guelman and Iosif Backstein, for example. And neither Hemmer nor Kabakov, who shows next at the Garage, are part of the Gagosian stable, as far as I can tell. So I can't see the Garage merely as a big marquee where Western galleries, or even Gagosian, unload their stuff. Apart from anything else, it's owned by a Jewish cultural foundation which will also have an angle.
John Varoli's full English text is available below the cut.
Abramovich Prowls Art Basel (Bloomberg).
