Of the 56 paintings offered in today’s Russian art sale at Christie’s, 42 sold for a total of £8,021,750. The session benefited from the stellar performance of Konstantin Korovin’s market: Three of the five Korovins offered sold above estimate, including Roses and apples—the cover lot of the sale—which more than quintupled its estimate, selling for a final price of £937,250. In total, the Korovins sold brought £1,366,000, 17% of the sale’s total gross. Korovin’s average price so far this year is $302,682, which is twice as high as his average price in 2009 (for more on Russian artists’ average prices, see the latest edition of The ART Report).
But the biggest news of the sale is the record-breaking performance of Kuz’ma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin’s Vasya. The work more than quadrupled its high estimate, selling for £1,833,250, the top price of the auction and a new high for the artist. Petrov-Vodkin’s works are rare to the market (only six appeared at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and MacDougall’s between 2005 and 2009), but this is not the only major sale of a Pretov-Vodkin in recent memory: Last June, the artist’s Maternity brought £1,071,638 at MacDougall’s.
For more on analysis of the Russian art market, see the Russian edition of The ART Report.
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