Update at 16:30
Russian auctioners and platforms reported record sales at the end of last year. However, the expansion of the audience and the separation from the international market has led to the exhaustion of the number of lots, because the demand for collectibles has far exceeded the supply, RBC wrote.
Due to logistics issues, the number of works of art and antiques imported from abroad has decreased significantly and the appearance of many auctioners, such as publications, is significantly eroding the market. Inherently meager.
Director of Moscow Contemporary Art School Mikhail Levin said:
Mikhail Levin, Director of the Moscow Contemporary Art School, “The exhaustion of the market is definitely because shopping in the Western market has become much more difficult and it has become much more difficult. Even when buying, justifying the money that the work is actually purchased is more difficult. Russian collectors have focused more on domestic purchases and are lacking attention and needs. Of course, the need is the biggest for rare, high quality and unique things. It is important to note that the current private collectors are less farewell to their works because of the unstable economic situation and they are waiting. Therefore, we are witnessing the increase at the first level of work, in the work of the former masters, the pioneers in Russia. I also want to note that the demand for contemporary art is increasing, once again, we see from the number of visitors to top exhibitions, including Cosmoscow, where the number of record visitors in the five five visitors First, more than 50,000, Vladey auction house showed very good results in the sale of contemporary artworks. The increasing interest in the middle class and there is a rejuvenation among collectors in general. On average, those over 35 people buy. ”
Many new collectors appear, five to ten newly registered in most auctions, and the current supply is very far from demand. If there were 5 auctions 15 years ago, even after that, the collectors said that there were too much, now there are more than 200 auction houses, so the market is undercreasing. And customers who have a lot of money want to buy unique and quality items such as museums, antiques traders, collectors, heads of auction house Litfond, Sergei Burmistrov, said:
Sergei Burmistrov collectors, collectors, heads of auction house Litfond “If talking about the book market, in 2023, we set another record for Russia. The first edition of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's “Eugene Onegin” was offered for 12 million rubles, up to 26 million rubles, along with a rose of nearly 30 million rubles. Just yesterday, at a auction, the signature of a song by Viktor Tsoi was sold for 1.5 million rubles, although this number was too far from the limit: we sold his signature It costs nearly 4 million rubles, and his Soviet passport usually costs 9 million rubles. . If we talk about the paintings, about a number of large purchases, last year we auctioned a watercolor picture of ZinaidaDebrykova, this picture in the auction was sold for 37 million rubles. . Selling a lot from one million to 10 million rubles is a completely normal task for orders and awards before the revolution. A week ago there was a photo of the famous director, actor, photographer Leni Riefenstahl. The photo with her signature, worth 12 thousand rubles, increased nearly 45 times thanks to the auction and in my opinion, has reached 550 thousand rubles. This is why the auctions are becoming popular for those who own rare items. If they come to a store and get a certain price, it's one thing, but if a person puts an item to auction and suddenly, expects 10 thousand rubles, receives 0.5 million again Ru, then that is completely different.
According to Russia's largest online art trading platform Bidspirit, the most popular and effective auction portfolio in 2024 is the casting. The average sales result is 7 million rubles for each auction, maximum of 120 million rubles. The paintings of famous Russian and Soviet artists also have the greatest demand last year. Sales of paintings of Russian artists abroad also increased significantly. The demand for cheap works of modern Russian masters is always high.
Collected collectors, founder of the Maxart Contemporary Art Fund, graduated from the MBA program operating at Skolkovo Management School, Maxim Agadzhanov believes that the current situation in the Russian art market cannot be called exhaustion, the market Simply being restructured:
Maxim Agadzhanov, collector, founder of Maxart Contemporary Art Fund, graduated from the MBA program operating at Skolkovo Management School. “I will not call the current situation of decline, rather the market is being being Reconfigse. In my opinion, this is because the perception has been established that the Russian art market is isolated from the European market that belongs to the tradition. Just last year, the market authors began to seriously work on development towards Asia, but this process has only begun. On the other hand, the strong growth of the domestic market that we have observed since 2022, has had a positive impact on the situation but also stable growth. I see the price of Russian authors is increasing in the country, Russian collectors are increasingly collecting domestic works and at a lower level than buying works abroad. And the new market participants have just started to appear, giving collectors interesting options from the Middle East and Asia. We also started searching and traveling to Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, India, at a greater level than going to Biennale in Europe. And this forced us to review the established conventions of the Russian art market. Expensive artworks have become a bit less, while still as usual, there are many offers in the market. We have a large number of excellent young artists and great galleries. The price order has become a bit different: Young artists can no longer be bought for less than 100 thousand rubles for a picture. At the same time, the usual price is about 300,000 rubles and this is not limit. ”
Experts note that they actively buy works of contemporary authors often unknown and photography is a popular choice for half of the female audience.
