Bloomberg’s John Varoli reports on the opening night of Art Moscow the fair that was postponed to coincide with the third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art:

“Art Moscow is the most important commercial contemporary event in Russia and will tell us a lot about the art market,” said Marina Goncharenko, director of GMG Gallery in Moscow. “There are only a handful of collectors able to buy very expensive works. Otherwise, the market is mostly about a small group willing to pay between 5,000 euros ($7,395) and 20,000 euros.”

The Russian economy contracted by about 10 percent in the first half of 2009 as prices fell for natural resources, such as oil, on which Russia is heavily dependent. […] More than half of galleries at Art Moscow are Russian, and 17 are foreign, including Volker Diehl Gallery of Berlin, and Knoll Gallery of Vienna. […] “Russia’s contemporary art market was never big to begin with, and so this slowdown makes it more difficult,” said Volker Diehl, a German gallerist with spaces in Berlin and Moscow. “Russians show more interest in reasonably priced art by Russian artists instead of international ones.”

Russian Art Fair Bids to Lure Billionaires After Prices Slashed (Bloomberg)