Monday, June 18, 2007

The Times of India: Booking profits





B N Uniyal
17 Jun, 2007 l 0010 hrs ISTl

Everyone is talking of how heated the contemporary Indian art market has become in recent years but few seem to have noticed how the updraft from the art market is whirling up every other India-associated collectible to the skies. Art prices are exploding but so are the prices of all sorts of India-related memorabilia — photographs from the early twentieth and nineteenth century, tourism promotion posters and picture postcards from the 1950s-60s, philatelic albums, period furniture, antique chess sets, old coins, banknotes and early share certificates. Auction houses and dealers in London, New York and Los Angeles say they are being besieged from all over for India-related trash and treasure.

Especially hot are rare books, as is evidenced by the stunning prices realised at last month’s sale of 242 India-related antiquarian books at Bloomsbury, London. The auctioneers had estimated the sale to yield about Rs 90 lakh but the bidding in the auction room turned so furious that at the end the tally went up to a staggering Rs 2.10 crore. Add another Rs 40 lakh as buyer’s premium and the final figure soars to Rs 2.50 crore. This, despite the fact that the condition of the books offered was less than perfect. All but a few books were rumoured to have been grabbed by an NRI collector from North America. Even the few that the avid NRI collector let go from his hands fetched quite high prices. These were lapped up by some London dealers. Some dealers from India and Pakistan were present in the auction room but they too had to leave empty handed. Some dealers and auctioneers from Mumbai were bidding over the phone but they couldn’t get anything either.

A few books about India keep coming up for sale from time to time at art auctions or at the sales of mixed lots of collectible books but they do not usually cause the same excitement as auctions solely devoted to Indian books. There have so far been three such India auctions, all in London. The first, The Library of an Indian Gentleman, was held by Bloomsbury in November, 2003, when 315 books were sold for about Rs 1 crore. The second, held by Sothebys in May, 2005, also had 315 books on offer but they fetched a sum three times larger than the Bloomsbury sale. The third and the latest sale, again by Bloomsbury, contained the second tranche of the private library of American traveller and travel book collectors Robert Travis and wife Maria Travis, the first tranche having been sold by Sothebys earlier.

Collectible books associated with India have always been in demand from collectors and book dealers in Britain, France Germany, and Switzerland, the US and Japan, but the community of book collectors remained rather small until recently. It is only in the last four or five years that the demand for such books has been burgeoning in a big way as an ever larger number of young book fanciers has begun competing for books that are becoming scarcer by the year. Most 18th and 19th century books relating to India, particularly those with handcoloured plates, like those of the Daniells, Hodges, Simpson, Doyly, Fraser, Forbes, Forrest, Emily Eden, Fanny Parks, Grindlay, Gray, Gould, Wallich, Jerdon and Hooker were published in limited editions of 100 to 250 copies. Most of these are large size folios. These were scarce and pricy even when they were published over 150 to 200 years ago. Few copies of these books survive today. Most of these are shelved in institutional libraries. Hardly a few are in private hands. These come to market once in a long while and are quickly grabbed by collectors.

Dealers of rare books are whining that they are becoming scarce by the day. "Old books about India don’t stay long on the shelves," said Philip Brown, manager at the rare book section at the Blackwells at Oxford, "and replacements are hard to come by."

"I don’t think I can get a copy of a Grindlay, a Fanny Parks or even a Sleeman as easily or as quickly as I used to a decade ago," said an India specialist at an Amsterdam rare book shop somewhat ruefully. As these books are becoming scarce, prices are soaring ever higher. In many cases prices are doubling, even trebling, every few years. Alexander Jack’s Kot Kangra, a folio of just six plates with elaborate text descriptions published in 1847, sold for $1,275 at Sothebys in 1993 and soared to $4,680 at a Swann auction in 1995 and to $8,880 at Sothebys in 2005 and to a staggering $15,252 at Bloomsbury last month. Similarly, John Gould’s A Century of Himalayan Birds which had sold for just $2,534 in 1977 rose to $7,810 in 1986 and to $16,900 in 1998 and $ 23,920 in 2006. The asking price for an unblemished copy of a book like Wallich’s Plantae Rariore has risen to nearly $80,000 and that for Gray’s Indian Zoology as high $58,000.

A big change in recent years is the entry of quite a few young Indian collectors and dealers as also a fair number of NRIs from the US, Canada and the UK. They have added a new dimension to the rare book market by showing interest in collecting not only the eighteenth and nineteenth century plate books but also contemporary Indian authors Like Raja Rao, R K Narayan, G V Desani, Mulk Raj Anand, Ahmad Ali and Salman Rushdie. The first editions, special editions, academic works, signed copies and proof copies of these authors are much in demand. There are also collectors for such diverse disciplines as poetry, biographies, autobiographies, sciences, mathematics, economics vintage Indian cookery books. Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore are the most favourite authors.

As a result, auction prices of the first English language edition of Tagore’s Gitanjali, of which only 750 copies were printed at the Chiswick Press, UK, by the India Society, London, in 1912, have gone up to $2300 (2001) and $2576 (2004). The Golden Book of Tagore, a felicitation volume published in 1931 in a limited edition of 1,500 copies, sold for $55 in 1975 and for $90 in 1982 and then shot up to $2250 in 2003. A lot quicker has been the rise in the price of Loffrande lyrique, the French translation of the Gitanjali rendered by the French author, Andre Gide, himself a Nobel laureate like Tagore. This beautifully illustrated, large folio edition published in Paris in 1925 fetched $2,500 in 1995 and rose to $7000 in 2001. In 2002, it sold for $7,500.

However, the community of book collectors
is still quite small as compared to collectors of contemporary Indian art. They collect books for their beauty, rarity, antiquity and the sentimental value of their past associations. They may fancy a mint condition copy of Monier William’s Sakoontala, published in 1855 for the sheer beauty of its heavily gilt decorated binding, a de Bry from the year 1600 for its antiquity, a Hodges,
a Daniell or a Simpson for its numerous contemporary hand-coloured plates, or a Gandhi,
a Nehru or a Tagore for its historic association, or a first edition of Kipling’s Jungle Books or
of Kim in remembrance of times past.

Association copies are specially cherished, for who would not want to own a book bearing the stamp of Jawaharlal Nehru’s Anand Bhawan library. Such a book becomes even more valuable if it happens to bear a note in Nehru’s own hand (Read in District Jail Barreilly, Feb. 1932, J. Nehru). If the book also happens to have been warmly inscribed by Nehru to someone like Lady Diana Menuhin, wife of the great 20th century violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, it becomes all the more precious to a collector. One such book, The Little Clay Cart, the English translation of Sudraka’s Sanskrit play Mrichhakatikam, was sold by the Maggs Bros. of London some years ago for a whopping sum of £1500 (Rs 1,23,000). An ordinary copy of that book without such associations with Nehru would hardly have fetched £ 5 (Rs 400).

(B N Uniyal has worked as a journalist with several newspapers. These days he is working on a book, Collectible India.)

The Financial Express : The show-stopper catalogues




Glossy and expensive, they are today almost as much of a collectible as the painting they endorse

Posted online: Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

It used to be the size of a postcard. There would be a couple of pictures jostling for space, with a few hundred words on the artist thrown in. But that was many years ago. Now, the humble art catalogue has morphed into quite a show-stopper.

For one, art catalogues have become glossier than ever before and have many more pages. And, every new catalogue tries to outdo its predecessor in design, photography and printing. As far as the money spent on it — well, no one’s counting. The reason? It’s boom time in the Indian art market these days. Whether it is an artist spending from his own pocket or a gallery that is pulling out all stops to get that oh-so-sophisticated catalogue made, the fact is that all eyes are on the millions that are going to come from the exhibition/auction.

As artist Sanjay Bhattacharyya says: “Earlier, my catalogue used to be a folder with a maximum of three folds and may be two pictures. Now, cost is not such a big constraint as paintings sell, unlike earlier, when they didn’t.”

It is usually the galleries come out with truly high-end catalogues, which are often turned into books. This is simply because their budgets are bigger. Says Neville Tuli, Chairman, Osian’s: “We print about 2,000 catalogues for each auction and the budget is around Rs 12-15 lakh. Books with great passion aren’t made with just high production and design values. There has to be a generosity with knowledge and it’s a sharing process. This is still to emerge in India.”

So, what should a catalogue have? Ideally, good prints of some of the paintings that are on exhibit, the artist’s biodata, price lists and a write up on the artist’s work by an art historian. As former bureaucrat and writer Ashok Vajpeyi says: “Exhibitions come and go, but catalogues remain. It is actually a form of documentation.” Today, critical appraisal of an artist’s work is pretty much absent. Catch any writing that cites something negative about the artist. Gayatri Sinha, who has essayed many a piece on artists, defends it thus: “If you don’t endorse the artist’s work, you shouldn’t agree to do the writing.” So, posterity gets to read only the good about the artist. The bad gets covered in the haze of the past. How much documentation is that, then?

About the design and production of catalogues, Parthiv Shah, a graphic designer and photographer, says: “Because of better printing quality, we are now able to give glass effects, print black on black, give more breathing space between images instead of unnecessary layering. Colour correction for paintings is also far better today.” All this put together and catalogues are becoming collector’s items, as film posters have been for a while now. Consider this: Shah says the catalogue on painter Benode Behari Mukherjee that he designed was marked at Rs 6,000. Then there are those, like artist Subroto Kundu’s, which have an original work bound together with the other 100-odd pages… This being the trend, it’s not far-fetched to say that catalogues themselves could be on the auction block in the near future.

As of now, though, catalogues are published to give details of the exhibition/auction to collectors, the media, art critics and artists. According to Arun Vadehra of Vadehra Art Gallery, “Catalogues are normally given free. We have produced 14 books to date, and most of them are given free. This is a cost that we bear keeping in mind the huge volumes that exist in the art market.” But as someone on the art circuit says: “If you don’t disclose your credentials, chances are you have to pay for the catalogue.” And the price tag is usually Rs 200-300 for most of them today. In all of this, the artist is the one who’s never had it so good. He’s making a killing from the colours that he splashes on the canvas. He’s getting good mileage from the reams that are being written on him. The catalogue lives on, for art lovers and his grandchildren to pour over some day. Until then, some say, it makes a great calling card for the artist.

The Economic Times : Saffronart's sale of Indian masters rakes in Rs 37 cr




ASHOKE NAG
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2007 04:05:58 AM]


KOLKATA: Leading domestic art auctioneer Saffronart has scaled a total value of Rs 37 crore in its summer sale of modern Indian masters. Eighty per cent of the 130 lots on offer, translating to 104 lots, have been bought by buyers from India and abroad.

Tyeb Mehta’s Kali has swung the highest price of Rs 4 crore.
“There has been a very strong participation from new buyers with one-third of the bidders being new collectors. We saw a good deal of presence from mainstream international buyers.

Based on an assessment, this segment of buyers has seen a rise of around 25%,” Dinesh Vazirani, director, Saffronart, told ET.
Together with Tyeb Mehta, the other top prices on the list are SH Raza’s Terre Rouge at Rs 2.4 crore, another Raza titled Amar Jiva which was placed at Rs 2.3 crore and MF Husain’s Three Horses which went for Rs 2.1 crore.

At the same time, those hovering below the Rs 2 crore mark are Arpita Singh — Rs 1.55 crore, Husain’s Faces fetched around Rs 1.15 crore. FN Souza’s St John the Baptist fetched Rs 1 crore, while Rameswar Broota hovered at Rs 1 crore, Ram Kumar and J Swaminathan stood at Rs 65 lakh and Rs 74 lakh respectively.
Krishen Khanna’s Season of Watermelons sold for Rs 78 lakh, and Bikash Bhattacharjee’s King With Flute went for Rs 35 lakh, while a Sakti Burman painting sold for Rs 46 lakh and a J Sabavala for Rs 58 lakh.

“An artist like Manjit Bawa has shot past his presale estimates and enjoyed prices between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. In the same breath, a slightly lower range artist such as Lalu Prasad Shaw sports a price of Rs 10 lakh,” Mr Vazirani said.
“Sculptures also boast of decent prices. While well-known sculptor Himmat Shah has drawn a final price of Rs 63 lakh for his bronze sculpture, even a first-timer like Adi Davierwalla has attracted a price of Rs 36 lakh,” he added.

“Saffronart’s sale of Rs 37 crore ($9.2 million), is the highest among all the summer sales of Indian art till now.
What we find is that between the band of Rs 2 crore and below, the market seems to be growing very fast. In this category, 75% of the lots sold above the higher estimates. This shows that the number of buyers in that section is growing substantially. Eventually, many of these buyers will migrate up to the Rs 4 crore level,” Mr Vazirani said.

According to him, these buyers, at the moment, are positioned in the entry point category. They want to savour the experience of acquiring art. “My general impression is that the market, at this point of time, has consolidated in the range of Rs 2 - 4 crore. Buyers have become discerning and will only climb to a higher level when they come upon a painting they really want to buy. The market is reshifting,” Mr Vazirani said.

On the complexion of the buyer mix, he said that non - Indians have mostly come in from the US and Europe. In step, buyers in general, have stepped in from Hong Kong, UAE, Singapore, UK, Germany and France.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

The Delhi Expess : Flying Colours





If you haven’t spotted some of the A-list artists, it is because they are gallivanting in the galleries of London, Singapore and Venice, where art comes alive in summer

Vandana Kalra

That their canvases fetch millions of dollars at Christie’s and Sotheby’s and that Indian art is going places isn’t news anymore, but now the artists are following their works world over. If you haven’t spotted some of the A-list artists in their familiar circles, they are gallivanting in the galleries of London, Singapore and Venice, where art comes alive in summer.

While sweltering May and June are lean months for art in Delhi, it is the right time to tap the market internationally. Says Roshini Vadehra of the Vadehra Art Gallery: “We organise international exhibitions all year round, but summer happens to be the best time. While art activities hit a low in India, it is a good time abroad, especially in London and New York.” Next week Vadehra will accompany veteran artist Ram Kumar to London’s Grosvenor Gallery where he will showcase his latest works on paper and canvas from June 14.

A few weeks ago, the Art Alive Gallery had organised an exhibition of 10 artists at The Gallery on London’s Cork Street. Paresh Maity and Thota Vaikuntam were a few who flew out to make an Indian art summer. “I was in London for two weeks. I clubbed the visit with another charity show organised by Pratham India,” says Maity, who has just returned to the country and will soon to be travelling to Venice for another project.

Riyas Komu is already in the city of gondolas for the Venice Biennale that begins on June 10 and which will display his works. “I will be showing five canvases and they are all inspired by an Iranian film called Circle,” he reveals.

Some artists are looking East. Atul and Anju Dodiya and Jogen Chowdhury are in Singapore — though for different purposes. While Anju is on a residency at Singapore’s Tyler Print Institute, Chowdhury is busy attending an art camp, and Atul is just taking a summer break.

Others like Nupur Kundu have postponed their summer escapades for a while. She will be flying to Australia in August and then to London, where her works will be displayed at the Royal College of Art. “I’ll beat the heat by staying indoors and completing my works. A well-deserved vacation will come only after that,” she says. But not everyone is crossing the borders this summer. Delhi-based artist Sidharth, for instance, prefers the Himalayas. He is planning his annual trip to the Valley of Flowers. “I pick fallen flowers to prepare colours to paint,” he says. Call it holiday hues.

The Economic Times : What's the economics of art & freedom?




KIRAN KARNIK

[ MONDAY, JUNE 11, 2007 02:20:36 AM]

A few weeks ago, an art student in Baroda was arrested, following protests by a group against his apparently blasphemous paintings. The head of the Art department of the university was suspended by the vice chancellor. Some time back, an art gallery of Hussain’s paintings was vandalised in Ahmedabad, and continuous harassment by vigilante groups has now forced him to live abroad. Threats by similar groups prevented the release of a film, Parzania, in Gujarat.

Similar incidents in different parts of the country point to a growing climate of intolerance, of an insistence on staying within a framework defined as “correct”. The boundaries of the permissible are laid down by any group that is able to resort to violence in support of its cause. Sadly, in most such cases, the government has been an apathetic bystander quite happy to turn a blind eye and to abdicate its responsibility of upholding an individual’s right to free expression. Worse, the government itself has sometimes got into the act — by banning books or seizing “objectionable” material.

Mob rule is not limited to religious sensitivities; it extends to moral policing of couples in parks, violent disruption of any Valentine’s Day activities, enforcement of bandhs and strikes, protests about composition of the cricket team, etc. None of these are aimed at the government or its policies. Instead, they are generally directed against individuals and are a means of coercion aimed at making the individual fall in line. This is, of course, the recognisable trademark of fascism.

Tolerance has long been a trait that we associate with India and are proud about. Yet, our track record on this, especially in the last few years, has been rather depressing. The level of rigidity and intolerance has scaled up dramatically. The slightest incident is blown into a huge affront, with organised groups ready to immediately throw stones, burn buses and beat-up people. The ability to laugh at oneself has disappeared and respect for dissenting opinions has ceased to exist.

The political and sociological impact of the growing vigilantism are numerous and serious. This piece, however, focuses on a different aspect; the implications for the economy. There is the obvious effect of loss of wages and production due to strikes, and because of absentees resulting from violence and disruption. Undoubtedly, there is also an impact on investors — both Indian and foreign — who would be wary of investing in a violence-prone or volatile area. These, however, are short-term impacts, which are surmountable.

Of far greater concern is the long-term impact, one in which psychology affects economics. This has to do with the importance of innovation as a driver of economic growth, and the link between innovation and a psychology of freedom. It has been well-established that creativity and innovation flower best in a milieu that permits free thinking. Communities that permit — and, ideally, encourage —– diversity of thought and opinion are more likely to produce theories and products that are different or innovative. In contrast, regimented communities, with narrowly defined norms of dress, language, behaviour — and even thought — are unlikely to produce anything significantly new or different.

In this, India begins with an exceptional advantage. Few countries, if any at all, have the diversity that we have in culture, language, dress, food, ethnicity and religious belief. This variety has, over the centuries, made us tolerant of differences. Not only is it routine to see people dress in various ways or behave differently, but it is completely acceptable to have people thinking differently. After all, in how many countries can you nod your head either vertically or horizontally to say yes?

Our system of governance has built on this inherited diversity. A free-wheeling democracy, as practiced in India, has lack of discipline as a very visible aspect. This, unfortunately, makes for chaotic traffic, an absence of orderly queues and general disorder in all public places.

This absence of respect for rules and defined processes has one (possibly only one) positive element: it is greatly conducive to “out-of-the-box” thinking. Motorbikes that by-pass traffic jams by driving on the footpath, cars that drive on the wrong side of a divided road to avoid even a short detour, multiple queues at a single counter — these are some commonplace examples of “different” thinking, with little regard for rules. On the other hand, creations like the auto-rickshaw, mud-pot “refrigerator” and the desert cooler testify to the positive impact of thinking beyond the given.

If innovation is the future — especially in the era of the knowledge economy — what should we do to encourage and promote it? An eco-system to incubate and foster innovation has many requirements. Of these, as briefly argued above, an important one — in which we have a natural advantage — is diversity. Recognising and building on our inherent diversity is, therefore, a necessity.

However, this can be of concrete value only when it extends into diversity of thought and expression, and the confidence that such freedom will be fully protected. Innovation will be stifled and killed in an atmosphere of fear and restrictions. It is for this reason that recent incidents from the art world have a direct bearing and consequence in the domain of economics and business. Business and industry need to recognise this and raise their voice against such assaults on freedom — both, for the sake of democracy and in their own economic interest. Ultimately, artistic freedom is as important to the economy as good monsoons or prudent management of the fiscal deficit.

The next stage of India’s growth will be driven by creativity, knowledge and intellectual capital. Innovation comes from adversity and diversity: one a curse, the other a blessing. As we try to get rid of the first, let us focus on developing and exploiting the second. Tolerance is the life-blood of diversity. A tolerant society is not only a humane and compassionate one, it is also more creative and productive. If not for the first cause, will corporate leaders speak up for tolerance at least for the second?

Monday, June 11, 2007

International Herald Tribune: Top Indian artist and Bollywood star collaborate on a painting




Friday, June 8, 2007

LONDON: What do you get when you cross Picasso with Bollywood?

Dozens of art lovers and fans of the Indian silver screen got a chance to find out when one of India's most famous artists, M.F. Husain, and leading movie heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan went live on stage at the Bonham's auction house in London on Thursday to collaborate on a painting that was later sold while it dried.

Husain, named by Forbes magazine as the "Picasso of India" and Khan, the movie star so revered that his fans call him "King Khan," completed the large painting depicting a scene from Mugal-e-Azam, a popular 1963 Indian film about a legendary slave girl named Anarkali. The public display was part of an event called "Art for Freedom" which was meant to raise support for art and media.

The piece features a man in sand-colored clothing fanning the face of his lover, Anarkali, who is reclining near a musician playing a sitar. It was painted almost entirely by Husain before the event — with only the sitar to be completed by Husain and Khan in front of the live audience.

Khan, who knows Husain personally and owns one of his paintings, said that it was an honor to be able to share the canvas with the 92-year-old artist known for never wearing shoes and carrying a paintbrush wherever he goes.

"Whatever we do can be turned into a masterpiece, because he is the master," Khan said.

Khan carefully filled in the bottom portion of the sitar with small nervous strokes, before Husain took the paintbrush away to the amusement of audience members.

Many people who came to the auction had been skeptical about Khan's artistic abilities, including Khan himself, but were curious to see what the collaboration would produce.

"I am not an artist by a long shot, but I'm here to just enjoy the evening as I hope many of you will too," Khan said.

Husain and Khan wrote their signatures in the upper right corner of the piece.

The effort was part of an auction which featured 35 other pieces of artwork completed by India's top artists — many of which were also collaborations with eminent citizens in the Indian and British communities.

Isabel Kocses, a fan of Indian art, traveled from Duesseldorf, Germany in order to see Husain and Khan's painting.

"I am very impressed by Indian painting and learned a lot about it. I came to see Husain, because he is the greatest artist," she said. "I know the collaboration will be amazing."

The painting's sale is being negotiated.

The Hindu: Indian art scene is on the threshold of a new era


New Delhi, June. 7 (PTI): Indian art scene is on the threshold of a new era riding piggyback on a rapidly expanding art market. The contemporary art in the country is attracting more and more people who are complete strangers to the art world till the other day, says a new book.

From Singapore to San Francisco, newspapers point towards the exchange of big money at art auctions of Indian art and of events mounting Indian artists worldwide.

This is one reason why any Indian artist, especially one like Bikash has to be written about extensively for readers both at home and abroad, says the book "Close to Events".

The book explores the life and works of contemporary artist, Bikash Bhattacharjee by noted author and critic Manasij Majumder in his foreword by eminent painter M F Husain.

"More and more people are now keen to know and understand contemporary art, often as part of efforts to cope with their own time. They include young collectors as well as those who can afford to buy art only in prints and reproductions and they want to read lucid exegetic texts about art and artworks," Manasij says.

The tome analyses the techniques and styles through which art developed with detailed illustrated explanations on the paintings, contained in the book. The sketches and writing used throughout the book has been taken from Bhattacharjee's own notes.


Thursday, June 7, 2007

Artprice.com: The World's Top 10 Artists




Top 10 artists [Mar 07]


Each artist makes their own, large or small, contribution to the total market. And ranking them by auction turnover gives a good indication of market conditions, preferences and trends. Every year Artprice ranks artists by this criterion. Modern and contemporary artists obviously have more works on the market than the old masters, many of whom have dropped down our rankings because of thin sales volumes. Now, some modern artists are starting to suffer from the same effect, as their works tend to come up less often at auction, unless this is offset by a rise in price.
Some names, though, seem to be permanent fixtures: the modernists Picasso, Modigliani and Chagall head the list every year. Artists once classed as contemporary rise in the rankings and start to be seen as classics. Warhol and Lichtenstein, for instance, are increasingly looking like sure bets from the late 20th century.
In contrast, as their market dwindles, leading impressionists, such as Monet and Renoir, have tended to lose ground to the big names of modern art.
And, this year, the price of entry to the Top 10 is particularly steep: turnover of at least USD 59m compared to USD 33m last year. With such a boom in prices, the combined turnover of the Top 10 grossing artists in 2006, was USD 1,261m (19.4% of the market, spent on fewer than 5,000 lots). Even in 2004, another boom year, sales of the Top 10 artists only managed USD 576m.

1- Pablo PICASSO: $ 339,245,929

It is now 10 years that Pablo Picasso has been the market’s leading artist, not just for the number of lots coming up for auction each year, but also for the number of record prices paid for his work. Whatever the medium, Picasso tops the rankings for record sales: USD 93m in May 2004, for Garçon à la Pipe, a rare canvas from his pink period, USD 12.25m in November 2005 for Nu Jaune, a mixed technique work on paper from 1907, and in 2004, Le Repas frugal, a 1904 etching knocked down for GBP 550,000. In 2006, the market leader saw his turnover rise by 112%. His position was boosted by 35 million-plus sales in 12 months. The high point of these came last May, when a 1941 portrait of his muse, Dora Maar, went under the hammer at Sotheby’s for USD 85m, in the course of their prestigious Impressionist & Modern Art evening sale. Exactly two years after the record sale of Garçon à la Pipe, this canvas became the second-most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. This multiplication of record sales for the master of the modern art movement reflects a general rise in Picasso’s prices. Since 1997, his index has doubled. In light of this strong demand, more and more pieces are being put up for auction: the number of lots rose by 20% in 2005 and by another 18% in 2006. Pablo Picasso’s dominance would have been still more marked if the Portrait de Angel Fernández de Soto, a piece painted in 1903, at the height of his blue period, sold for USD 26.5m in 1995 and estimated at USD 40-60m this year, had not been withdrawn from the auction at the last minute. A blue period Picasso could expect to fetch close to USD 60m. The Fernández de Soto portrait had been bought at Sotheby’s New York in 1995 for USD 26.5m, by Andrew Lloyd Webber. But it had to be pulled from the sale at the last minute when Julius H Schoeps claimed that the Nazis had looted it from his great-uncle, Paul von Mendhelsshohn- Bartholdy.
2 - Andy WARHOL : $ 199,392,442
By claiming the number two spot for the third year running, Andy Warhol has confirmed his status as the unquestioned star of the New York “contemporary art” sales. Also, no fewer than 43 of his works sold for more than a million dollars in 2006, eight more than Picasso. This helped boost his turnover by a massive 118% in 2006. The pope of pop thus continues his uninterrupted ascent into the pantheon of the most expensive artists in the world. His output increased in value by 36% in 2006 and has now grown by 382% in ten years. Given this inflation and rising demand a host of collectors are being tempted to sell. No fewer than 788 lots were knocked down in 2006, compared to 560 in 2002. His trademark canvases now go for more than USD 10m. Liz, a metre square portrait of Elizabeth Taylor from a series of 13 made in 1963, fetched USD 11.25m on 10 May 2006. In November, another three works went for more than USD 10m: Orange Marilyn (USD 14.5m), Sixteen Jackies (USD 14m) and Mao (USD 15.5m). Excluding fees, the record for an Andy Warhol piece belongs to the 1998 sale of Orange Marilyn for USD 15,750,000.
3 - Gustav KLIMT :$ 175,143,589

Usually, Some 50 drawings and watercolours by Gustav Klimt are sold at auction every year, representing 85% of the lots sold for this artist. Collectors generally pay USD 15,000-30,000 for a good quality piece. But only two or three paintings come up a year, and as a result Klimt has only once made it into the Top 10 before, in 1997, when his Schloss Kammer am Attersee II from 1909 sold for GBP 13.2m on 9 October at Sotheby’s London. But last year was unusual. Four major Klimt paintings were offered for auction at Christie’s on 8 November, and drew in USD 192m, including the highest bid of USD 78.5m (USD 87.9m including fees) for Portrait d'Adele Bloch-Bauer III. These paintings, looted by the Nazis from the Bloch-Bauer family, had recently been restored to the heir of their rightful owners by the Austrian government. A fifth painting, Portrait d'Adele Bloch-Bauer II, was sold in June for USD 135m in a private transaction. Boosted by these exceptional results Gustav Klimt’s index climbed by 46% in 2006.
4 - Willem KOONING de :$ 107,373,446
Artists from the New York school such as Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell are enjoying a surge of popularity. No surprise then, that the number one abstract impressionist should have made it into the Top 10. De Kooning set a new record on 15 November 2006, for Untitled XXVI, which fetched USD 24.2m at Christie’s New York, smashing his previous record, dating back to 1989, of USD 18 million for Interchange (1955). At its autumn sales, Christie’s sold no less than 12 de Kooning pieces, including some more accessible oils from the late fifties and sixties that could be picked up for between EUR 150,000 and 250,000 on 16 November in New York. Already on 10 May, Untitled XVII, a big 2 metre canvas from 1975 had been knocked down for USD 14m, double its estimate. Between January 2003 and July 2006, de Kooning’s price index gained 98.5%. Since 2003, it has risen by 170%. Mirroring this rise in value, Untitled XVIIII, a 1986 canvas bought in in 2004 on a low estimate of USD 1.5m, ultimately found a buyer in November 2006 for USD 3m.
5 - Amedeo MODIGLIANI : $ 90,713,845

A precocious talent, who died in 1920 before the age of 40, Amedeo Modigliani is nonetheless had massive success with his stretched portraits on neutral backgrounds and horizontal nudes. But his most sought-after works are still hard to find. Traditionally, the number of Modigliani transactions in a year is fairly low, 25-50 for all techniques. But in 2006, possibly prompted by a doubling in the artist’s index over the last 10 years, many collectors were rushing to put their classic pieces on the market. Three Modiglianis sold for more than USD 10m in 2006. The big auctions included one at Sotheby’s London where Marvin Schein sold Jeanne Hébuterne (with hat)I from 1919 for GBP 14.6m (USD 27m). He had bought the work nine years earlier for USD 8.7m. But this capital gain pales into insignificance compared to that earned by Le fils du conciergeI, a 1918 canvas bought for USD 5m on 14 May 1997 at Christie’s and resold in November 2006 by gallery owner Doris Amman for USD 27.75m, close to Modigliani’s 2004 record.

6 - Marc CHAGALL : $ 89,038,897

Thanks to impressive sale volumes (938 lots sold at auction), Marc Chagall remains in sixth place. His turnover has more than doubled, helped by some excellent results at the modern art sale on 16 June at Kornfeld (Berne) which was organised round 55 pieces directly from the collection of Ida Chagall, the artist’s daughter. Even a late work such as Le Songe I(1984), estimated at CHF 1,000,000 went for CHF 2,450,000 (around EUR 1.6m).

7 - Egon SCHIELE : $ 79,081,455

Although Schiele died at the age of 28, the Secession artist became an important figure in both art history and the art market. In the space of a few years, Schiele managed to create over 3,200 works of art. Drawings and watercolours account for almost 60% of Schiele's works that are auctioned. Twenty per cent of them now fetch more than USD 400,000, and the artist’s index continues to rise (152% between 1997 and 2006). His paintings are much rarer. Fewer than 50 canvasses have come up for sale in 20 years. Schiele’s top sale in 2006 was a canvas painted on both sides from 1915, Einzelne Häuser (Häuser mit Bergen) - Monk I (fragment, verso)I, estimated at USD 20-30m, which went for its low estimate on 8 November. In June, the artist had already chalked up a record GBP 10.5m (USD 19.4m) sale for his HerbstsonneI at Christie’s London.

8 - Paul GAUGUIN : $ 62,312,914

Paul Gauguin is the only painter working in the 19th century to make it into the rankings. Neither Claude Monet, nor Auguste Renoir, who used to be fixtures in the top spots, appear. It is actually something of a surprise that Gauguin makes it at all, as he failed to have much impact in 2006. The year was a series of lacklustre sales. In January, in London, Deux femmes - La chevelure fleurieI only just reached its low estimate of USD 11m. L'homme à la hache, from his Tahitian period was expected to fetch USD 35-45m but only went for USD 36m at Christie’s spectacular auction on 8 November 2006. In May, Vase de fleurs et gourdeI, an 1886 work changed hands for USD 4m, despite being estimated at USD 7-10m.
9 - Henri MATISSE : $ 59,723,249

Sotheby’s sold a major nude by Henri Matisse for USD 16.5m, a record for the artist. This 92cm wide 1927 work had been estimated at USD 12-15m. His Jeune fille au anémones sur fond violetI, which went for EUR 4.6m at Christie’s Paris on 1 December was the year’s most expensive sale in France. His index rose by 65% in 2006 and this, coupled with a bought in ratio of 29%, pushed turnover for Matisse to near USD 60m for the year. But this is still well below previous scores for Picasso’s friend, notably in 2000 and 2001, when Matisse was the third biggest grossing artist on the market with sales of USD 55m and USD 78m.

10 - Roy LICHTENSTEIN : $ 59,670,946

Lichtenstein, the other star of US pop, was number 11 in 2005, but earns his place in the Top 10 this year thanks to a superb USD 14m sale for Sinking SunI (1964), just USD 500,000 below his all-time record for the 1963 canvas In the Car, which sold for USD 14.5m at Christie’s NY on 8 November 2005. His index was stable in 2006, but has gained 334% since 1998. Transaction volumes are on a constant rise: since 2002, the number of Lichtenstein pieces sold at auction has risen from 144 to 375. Despite this plentiful offer, demand has kept pace and 81% of lots find buyers. Riding the wave of this enthusiasm, Still life with LampI, a wide canvas from 1976, bought for USD 300,000 at Christie’s NY in 1996, sold for USD 2.7m in 2006 at Sotheby’s.

Moneycontrol.com : Indian art prices have risen sharply: Saffronart Gallery





Dinesh Vazirani, Director, Saffronart Gallery, said the mood at the art auction seems buoyant. They have seen a maturing of the market and there is a shift from investors to collectors, he added. There has been a sharp rise in prices over the last two-to-three years, he added.

Arun Vadehra, Director, Vadehra Art Gallery, said the Saffronart auction have the advantage of the domestic market.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18�s exclusive interview with Dinesh Vazirani and Arun Vadehra

Q: Are you feeling a bit apprehensive or confident after how the Christie�s and Sotheby panned out this time?

Vazirani: We are confident. There has been a good start to the auction this morning. We see a more mature and educated market. Many discerning people are looking at specific lots, that they are interested in, but the mood seems quite buoyant.

Q: The global auction seems to have a bit of a sore sentiment back home because Christie�s and Sotheby were not great. Are you seeing any kind of tampering with the modern Indian masters market? Is there any reason to be a bit cautious now?

Vadehra: I don�t think so, although what you are saying may be partially correct. One auction going a bit soft does not mean anything as you have got the whole market, which is doing very well at the retail level.

The Saffron auction, which has started today, will do well because it has got the advantage of the domestic market, which Christie�s and Sotheby do not have. A lot of Indian buyers do not know that they can bid in Christie�s and Sotheby and can also officially import. However, the customs duty is at 15% as against a VAT of 12.5%.

One can easily buy from Christie�s and Sotheby, but sadly people do not participate as much as we would like them to do.

Q: How buoyant has the pricing been for the art market because a couple of other asset classes have been slowing down over the past few months?

Vazirani: What we have found is a shift in mindset over the last five-to-six years. People have become more educated and discerning. When we talk about a collector we mean someone who has spent some time learning. We see a shift from an investor to a collector and to be a good investor you have to have a good eye. First, someone should be a good collector. We see some kind of market maturity coming in. We have seen a sharp rise in prices over the last two-to-three years. The market is consolidating and getting more matured. A number of specific good quality works are doing very well. There is a lot of interest in those kinds of works.

Overall, the mood is good. The indicators for the art market as far as Indians are concerned is doing well, they are generating wealth. The interest in Indian art from both domestic and NRIs is growing. The general indicators are good. The buoyancy of the last couple of years will continue as the market grows and deepens.

Q: Is it just that interest levels are a bit low or this market is stronger within its domestic interiors?

Vadehra: If you take the Christie�s Hong Kong auction as well as its London auction, the Hong Kong auction witnessed sales of 75% of lots to non-Indians. In the London auction, which was predominantly dominated by models, we sold about 20% to non-Indians.

The interest among non-Indians is increasing and the buoyancy is going up. The client is becoming more discerning and good stocks are making good value. In one of the Bonhams auction, we saw Jamini Roy making about Rs 1 crore. In another auction, we saw Bikash Bhattacharya making nearly Rs 80-85 lakh.

We are rediscovering the market to that extent. I think Jamini Roy is a great example of the Bengal school, which may reopen after a period of four-five years.

The market is broadening, there is a great future for Indian art. Unlike the West, there is a lack of museum culture in India and that's why Indian buyers can still buy the top western art works, which are unavailable to the western collectors.

Q: Is the market getting far more selective and quality conscious right now as in some of the global auctions a whole lot of Souzas, Razas or Gaitondes did not actually sell?

Vazirani: The market is definitely making a distinction between good and poor quality works. That comes only when there is a shift or balance between the so-called financial and aesthetic side, where you have the investor/collector. The eye of the investor is trained to make good choices.

The so-called education where people have access to information, pricing, and transparency, which has happened over the last five-to-six years, has really helped people to be discerning and have a good eye to look at art. Today, people are actually choosing works where they believe the quality is good. That�s a good sign for the market.


Q: Christie�s Hong Kong auction did much better than Christie�s Modern Masters auction. Do you sense any kind of interest shift from the moneybags to contemporary Indian art rather than modern art as the kind of prices which Dodie fetched in the Hong Kong auction were quite eye popping when compared to the kind of performance with modern masters?

Vadehra: Modern masters have already gone up by six-to-seven times during the last two years and contemporary is little refreshing to see. They have been seen and bought by most collectors over the last seven-to-eight years. Contemporary is more affordable and you can get top works of a contemporary master today. Even international buyers participate a little more in contemporary art because it is (a) trendy (b) contemporary in the true sense and (c) reasonable to the pocket.

Q: Do you see any kind of shift happening in the market? Arun spoke about the possible reemergence of schools like the Bengal School, which has been suppressed for a long time. Are contemporary signals coming in from the recent Hong Kong auction or is it same the Souza-Raza kind of market?

Vazirani: The market today has got many streams and it mirrors the international market in many ways. Globally, contemporary art has been hitting record prices at auctions over the last year as the collector base is becoming younger and there is an interest in those works, which meet their contemporary identity. Other genre like the Bengal school, which was not in the limelight for long time, is coming back very strong and artists like Ganesh Pai, Bikash Bhattacharjee, and Jogen Choudhary are all doing extremely well at auctions. Different genres develop as the market and the size of the players grow. There are pockets all round the world focusing on the different areas of art.

Q: What is your own gut feeling. Is Tyeb going to be King again at your auction?

Vazirani: It is a fantastic work. I presume, there will be a lot of interest and there is a good chance he might be.

Q: Which one is your favourite at the auction this time?

Vazirani: I like quite a few. I like Terre Rouge, which is Raza's with its bold and vibrant colours. I also like Tyeb very much. There is a good selection of Arpita Singh's in this auction and a couple of small Souza paper works, which I personally like very much.

Q: What is your favourite work in this Saffron lot?

Vadehra: In addition to whatever Vazirani said, I like the Husain�s The Horses work quite a lot. Of course Tayeb�s work really stands out. I have had an opportunity to see his work in the flesh in Vazirani�s office. The same is with Raza�s work.

I think there are works for all kinds of collectors and for all kinds of pockets. I expect this auction to do well in spite of the fact that a lot of people are saying that contemporary is the flavour. I agree with that but these masters will remain masters.

Q: You were there at the Hong Kong auction. Is the investor-base increasing or expanding fast enough or does that remain a point of concern because people still complain that at the top-end of the market it is still quite narrow for the Indian art?

Vadehra: I read your article today, which said that there is 100 million demat accounts in China as against 10 million in India. Somehow or the other our art is better than China as our markets are better than China. I think this investor-base or the collector-base will go up by geometric progression and not arithmetic progression. This will certainly change in the next two or three years.

I do see the market going up to a billion dollars from today. USD 400 million will be a reality within the next two-years and thereafter it will reach the USD 2 billion mark by 2012. There is a bright future for the market.

Q: Some people back in India have been a bit worried on where prices are heading. Do you sense any softness in the art market right now, or are you saying that things are okay?

Vazirani: It seems all right. I can really answer that question tomorrow evening, after seeing the participation in the auction. But it seems like the interest levels are still high. The mood is still buoyant and people are excited as the quality of work is good and that makes a difference.


Artprice.com: Sotheby's dominates Christies'




Sotheby's dominates the ‘impressionist and modern’ art sales in New York [May 07]

Sotheby’s managed, as had been hoped, to outpace its competitor Christie's in the impressionist and modern art sales held on 8 and 9 May 2007, obtaining results which gave it pole position in this round. However, the lead can't yet be described as significant: $278,548,000 compared with $236,464,000 for sales under the hammer at Rockefeller Plaza.

The overall lead seen this month didn't, however, prevent Christie's from achieving sales proving, once again, that this rivalry is benefiting the whole market, with each sale bringing its share of surprises. The Seine as seen by Maximilien LUCE was thus better received at the latter house, with La Seine au pont Saint-Michel selling for $2,500,000, smashing the artist’s previous record. The Seine à Issy, by the same artist, offered by Sotheby's on York Avenue was unsold. Rockefeller Plaza also set 4 new world price records, of which 3 had been held until now by Sotheby’s; notably, Paul SIGNAC’s L’Arrière du Tub, sold for $10,400,000, some 2 million above the high-end estimate. A spring sale benefited Juan GRIS Pot de géranium which achieved $16,500,000, some 9 million more than at Sotheby’s five years earlier. Finally, the 1981 sculpture by Joan MIRO Projet pour un monument pushed up the bidding until the hammer fell at $8,800,000. The final record at this Plaza sale was none other than Alberto GIACOMETTI's L’homme qui chavire whose sale price exceeded the low-end estimate of $6,500,000 by 10 million.

At Sotheby's, Henri MATISSE’s Gris et Jaune de l’Odalisque did not make the low-end estimate but achieved, nonetheless, a little over $13 million. It was the Paul CÉZANNE watercolour, already estimated at $14 million to $18 million which was, without a doubt, the event's highlight, achieving a new world record for the artist’s drawings, now set at $22,750,000. Back in 1999, the auction house had already set the record for a work on paper with Danseuse au repos by Edgar DEGAS. Lyonel FEININGER set the house's second record for this beginning of the month in reaching more than $23 million with his Jesuits IIII.

Despite the buoyancy of the market, a certain sobriety prevailed and the headline lots disappointed. Thus the market leader with his 2004 record of $94,000, saw his Tête d'Arlequin sold for less than the low-end estimate at $13,500,000. In addition, Amedeo MODIGLIANI’s Femme au collier vert estimated at least $12 million to $16 million by Christie’s failed to sell.

Artprice.com: Contemporay Chinese & Russian Art




Chinese Contemporary Art Market - Cultural revelation [Jun 07]

Speculation is showing no signs of slowing and auction sales are ever stronger, and prices ever higher. The price appreciation has been staggering for the generation of young Chinese artists and the number of investors continues to grow. It often takes only a few years for a Chinese artist to see a tenfold price increase, as with Xiaogang ZHANG or Guoqiang CAI to cite just a couple of examples. Symbolic of the price increases: the ten most successful auctions of contemporary Chinese art have been recorded over the past twelve months. In the end, in 2006, 31.3% of the Chinese contemporary artworks sold at auction achieved more than $100,000. Given such price levels, the proceeds on Chinese contemporary art sales increased by a factor of ten in 2006.

The most successful sales took place in New York or China. The major auction houses have established offices there to be closer to supply and demand. To date, Xiaodong LIU is achieving the highest valuations of the Chinese contemporary artists. His work was offered at auction for the first time in 1991 in Hong Kong. Back then, Christie’s-Swire brought the hammer down at 7,851 euros. Last November, his work New Displaced Population was sold for 20,000,000 CNY (1,982,600 euros) by Poly International Auction Co, Ltd in Beijing. Yifei CHEN was also introduced at auction in 1991 with Lingering Melodies from the Xunyang River already selling for 150,925 euros at Christie’s-Swire. On 27 June 2006, the Shangai Hosane auction house achieved 11,000,000 CNY (1,097,470 euros) for Warm Spring in the Jade Pavillon.

Attracted by the amazing results being achieved by the New York or Chinese auction houses, numerous European auctioneers have recently been organising sales dedicated to Chinese contemporary art. The prices reached are not yet up with the leaders in the market; the opportunity to open this market to a wider public.

In France, Artcurial now dedicates whole catalogues to this sector. No less than 109 lots will be up for sale on 5 June. Once again Xiaogang ZHANG has top billing. Two small canvases measuring 40x30 cm, created in 1999, are estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000 euros apiece. Wuji ZHAO will see one of his 1998 canvases offered for sale at an estimate of between 170,000 and 200,000 euros. His price index shows an increase of +406 over the last decade. For less than 10,000 euros the choice is wide: not less than 59 works offered for sale at under this estimate, including pieces by AN HONG, Fengzhi LIU, Xiaofan RU, Lizi MAO, HaiWen TANG, Yan HUANG or Desheng MA. Worthy of mention: an untitled, 100cmx100cm oil on canvas by LI SHUANG, with an estimate of 5,000 to 7,000 euros. The artist made his auction debut in 1996 in Beijing with China Guardian. At that time, he achieved 22,000 CNY (2,300 euros) for an oil on canvas with collage, measuring 150x100cm. In 2005, he saw his work sold for 230,000 HKD (24,863 euros) by Sotheby’s Hong Kong followed by 350,000 CNY (34,738 euros) in 2006 in Beijing by China Guardian.

Switzerland will also see its own auction dedicated to contemporary Chinese art with the Galerie Koller sale in Zurich on 23 June 2007. Snowy Landscape by Lake Geneva, a 1967 canvas by Teh-Chun CHU measuring 160x129cm and estimated at 300,000 to 400,000 CHF (188,000 – 251,000 euros) is worth noting. The prices being achieved by the artist have increased by +390 over the past decade. Also Minjun YUE whose 40x40cm oil on canvas, Corner, has an estimate of 115,000 to 140,000 CHF (72,320 – 88,000 euros). Amongst the artists whose works have estimates at under 10,000 euros, we would mention Guangyi WANG, Minjun YUE, Tiehai ZHOU, WU GUANZHONG and Bo HOU.


Contemporary Russia - An emerging market [May 07]

After Sotheby’s sale of contemporary Russian art in February and the second edition of the Moscow biennial art fair in March, contemporary Russian art is enjoying considerable effervescence. In historical terms, Russian artists’ freedom to express themselves is a relatively recent phenomenon. For example, in 1974 an exhibition of non-conformists in Moscow was demolished by a State bulldozer. Over recent years the cultural face of the Russian capital has changed radically with the opening of contemporary art centres. Although much of the contemporary work is focused on social and political critiques of the old communist regime, a broad diversification of artistic languages is beginning to emerge. Contemporary Russian art is attracting more and more amateur art collectors; however, for the time being, the majority of professional collectors are still of Russian origin.

Ilya KABAKOV, a Ukrainian born in 1933, is an unavoidable figure in contemporary Russian creativity. He is familiar with auction exposure and has sold more than 60 lots in public sales of which a majority have been drawings that sell for between EUR 4,000 and 8,000 on average. On 31 May 2006 at Sotheby’s London, a lot of 31 drawings from the 1970s entitled Where are

they? far outstripped its estimate by selling for GBP 220,000 (more than EUR 320,000!) Indeed, the whole generation of artists surrounding Kabakov – born

between the mid-1920s and the 1940s – is currently enjoying strong market effervescence. The inflation in value of the works of these artists accelerated in February of this year when Sotheby’s of London held its annual contemporary Russian art sale, an event it has been hosting since 1988. Among the artists presented there were Grisha BRUSKIN, Vitalii KOMAR, Boris ORLOV, Vladimir OVCHINNIKOV, Oskar RABINE, Viktor PIVOVAROV, Edvard Arkadievich STEINBERG, Natalia NESTEROVA and Mikhail CHEMIAKIN. The sale was a major success with 80% of the lots being sold. The highest bid during the sale was for an untitled work by Evgeny CHUBAROV which brought to mind Jackson POLLOCK’s dripping paintings. Estimated at between GBP 40,000 and 60,000, the piece fetched GBP 240,000 (over EUR 358,000), a particularly spectacular figure considering it was

Chubarov first ever auction sale! The second highest bid was for Révolution-Perestroika, a painting by Eric BULATOV from a private American collection which went under the hammer for GBP 165,000 (EUR 246,000) setting a new record for the artist. A third record was also set when a painting entitled Avid Eye by Mikhail Matveevich SHVARTSMAN (1926-97) more than tripled its estimate by selling for GBP 160,000 (close to EUR 230,000); yet another surprise considering the infancy of the market for Mikhail Matveevich SHVARTSMAN’s works. In effect, that was only the second piece by the artist to sell at a public auction; the first, Morning Road fetched GBP 40,000 (just under EUR 60,000) in November 2006. Aside from these lofty bids, some works were offered for less than GBP 5,000 such as a still life by Dmitri PRIGOV entitled Evening in Koktebel that sold for pour GBP 3,000 (EUR 4,481).

The younger generation of Russian artists born in the 50s and 60s has not yet acceded to a developed auction market. Nevertheless, French art collectors are already active in this field and are following young artists like Alexander & Vladimir VINOGRADOV & DUBOSSARSKY. For example, on 1 April last the Parisian auction house Cornette de Saint-Cyr Paris handled this artistic duo’s third auction appearance, the Landscape, which doubled its estimate selling for EUR 27,000! The presence in Paris of galleries specialised in Russian art has boosted the Russian creative scene. Moreover, the French auction house Calmels-Cohen actively supports the digital prints of the AES group founded in 1987. The three works submitted for auction by Calmels-Cohen all found buyers for prices between EUR 800 and 2,200 (9 June, 2005). A number of other Russian artists are also beginning to be mentioned at exhibitions and in the specialised art media such as Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Viatcheslav Mizine, Alexandre Chabourov, Constantin Batynkov, Alexandre Ponomarev and Avdei Ter-Oganyan; but they are still unknown (or almost) at public auctions… however, the excellent results at Sotheby’s this year prove that things can change very quickly!