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Oligarchs Show Restraint

April 10, 2009 by Marion Maneker

The Moscow Times takes a detailed look at the spending habits of Russia’s richest residents (and non-residents.) From boats to property on the French Riviera, there’s a new emphasis on frugality. Denizens of the Russian luxury complex–dealers, mostly–say there are few distressed sales but a moratorium on new purchases:

Despite the strain on their businesses and bank accounts, art collectors are not exactly stampeding for the exits, said Maria Baibakova, a curator at the Krasny Oktabr Chocolate Factory gallery who also collects art with her father, Oleg, president of Prokhorov’s Onexim-Development.  Baibakova, who estimates that there are about 30 “serious collectors” in the country, said a recent 25 percent drop in the art market was caused by a dearth of buyers, rather than a rush to sell.

“Most collectors do not collect as a business, and art is not their primary asset, so they do not need to sell into a low market,” she said.

But while the country’s elite are not selling their toys, the lavish purchases of the last few years have been curtailed, said Ellen Verbeek, editorial director of Robb Report Russia, a lifestyle magazine for jet-setters. “Nobody’s selling, and nobody’s buying,” she said. “Everyone is just trying to spend less. [Thriftiness] is even becoming fashionable, although nobody would ever have imagined that six months ago.”

Billionaires Reluctant to Give Up Their Toys (The Moscow Times)

“Please, no questions about purchases and money”

January 21, 2009 by Marion Maneker

Victor Pinchuk Sticks to His Art

Bloomberg reports on the opening of Ukrainian steel magnate and art hound, Victor Pinchuk’s latest exhibition:

The steel tycoon opened the largest exhibition of Russian contemporary art in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history at the same time that the Kiev and Moscow governments were battling over natural gas sales. Shipments from Russia resumed yesterday after a price agreement was reached.

“Art doesn’t have boundaries,” Pinchuk said in an interview at his Kiev art center. “Ukraine is a place where art tendencies can intersect, coexist and enrich one another.” [ . . . ]

Pinchuk’s latest show, “21 Russia,” features works supplied by galleries of 21 Russian artists including Dubossarsky and Vinogradov, Alexei Kallima, the Blue Noses, AES+F, Valery Koshlyakov and Dmitry Gutov.

Alexander Soloviev, Pinchuk’s curator, said that while the display is a survey of leading artists during Vladimir Putin’s era, there is nothing political about it. “It’s about art for art’s sake,” said Soloviev.

Still, one work has a political tint. Sergey Shekhovtsov’s “Throne” is a three-meter-high Styrofoam installation of a czar’s throne. It premiered at XL Gallery in Moscow in March last year, on the day of elections that were denounced by pro- democracy campaigners for being under control of the Kremlin.

“Throne” is capped by mock video surveillance cameras, possibly a reference to the increased powers of security forces since Putin, a former KGB colonel, came to power.

The story, written by Bloomberg’s John Varoli, goes on to discuss Pinchuk’s show of photographs by Sam Taylor-Wood and Pinchuk’s relationship with Jay Jopling. But the world class art buyer set some stringent ground rules for Varoli:

“Please, no questions about purchases and money,” Pinchuk said before we started the interview.

Billionaire Pinchuk, Hirst Collector, Turns to Russia for Show (Bloomberg)

Bad Day for Picasso

October 28, 2008 by Marion Maneker

Kimmelman Finds Flaws in Paris Show; Estate Withdraws Sale

Picasso and the new realities of the global economy, is there a connection? Here’s how the New York Times’s Michael Kimmelman brings them together in his review of the “Picasso and the Masters” show in Paris:

“FIAC, the art fair that shared quarters in the Grand Palais these last several days, was populated by shell-shocked dealers murmuring worriedly amongst themselves about the bygone customers whom not so long ago they had blithely turned away or gave five minutes to decide whether to buy a picture. Picasso, in such straitened times, remains at least a reliable brand . . . ”

But how reliable? Kimmelman goes on to make this compelling point: “Picasso’s later career, you might say, was a one-man wrestling match with the limits of his own enormous genius in relation to history, and his failures were, humanly speaking, as compelling as his accomplishments, but that interpretation requires from an exhibition not blind hero worship but, as Delacroix had it, a little humility. The show here lacks this altogether, substituting swagger for judgment, bluster for nuance, and in art, as in politics and finance, we’ve had enough of that approach already.” [emphasis added]Continue Reading

Contrary Indicators: Oligarch Edition

October 22, 2008 by Marion Maneker

NPR Says Russians May Save the Art Market

We’ve mentioned in the past the semi-serious concept of the magazine cover indicator. The thinking goes that once a trend or idea reaches the level of interest that makes it worthy of a magazine cover, it is already over, out-dated or obsolete. In investment terms this can mean that it is simply too late to get into a trend or it can be a bright flashing sign that there’s nowhere to go but down.

Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova
Abramovich and Zhukova

Today, NPR offers a report on the role of Russians in the art market. It trots out the Hirst sale, Abramovich, Zhukova and the Malevich coming up at Sotheby’s in New York. It quotes one auction house expert saying that Russians who got out of the market may still be interested in investing in high-quality art. It’s a nice thought but few of the wealthiest Russians have been like Mikhail Prokhorov: in cash.

A better thought may be that even though many of the wealthiest Russians have lost huge amounts nominal wealth that they still have enough free cash to buy the kind of art that will continue to place them within the forefront of global culture. Russian wealth may have been damaged by the collapse of credit–but their nationalistic pride and ambitions have not.

Russians Turning to Art Market as Recessions (NPR)


Are the Russians Coming?

October 14, 2008 by Marion Maneker

Bloomberg Worries About Russians and Guarantees

Here’s an awkward situation, this week’s Contemporary Auctions in London were assembled–and financial guarantees made–long before the acute events of September and October dramatically changed the world’s financial outlook. Nowhere is the turnabout more pronounced than Russia where the natural resource magnates are feeling the pinch of margin calls, capital flight and frozen credit. Bloomberg has two stories today that put the picture together.Continue Reading

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