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“Beginners start and… win”. Nadezgda Nazarevskaya, ANTIQ.INFO № 32, September 2005

The past season 2004-2005 has signified a new stage in the development of the antiques market in Russia. It has considerably expanded, many new participants have appeared, and a new group of antiques has been introduced — the Russian art of the XX century.
The Russian art of the XX century can be divided in several independent trends: the pre-RevoLution art, the art of the Russian emigration, and the heritage of the Soviet era. At the first stage of the Russian antiques market development Soviet art was somewhat exotic post-perestroika product. During the Last five years, many galleries have started to work with Soviet art, buttheir activities have been rather chaotic both in the choice of the direction and the pricing. We have written about the market of Soviet art in our magazine ("Antiq.Info", No 28). But now, when the antiques season 2004-2005 is over, it is necessary to turn to this topic again, because there are already distinct development tendencies. Prices are set with the participation of the buyer, who is ready to pay a certain price for a certain thing. Prices become known during the auctions and can be the grounds for analytical forecasts and further considerable investments into Russian antiques. Most of the auctions held by antiquaries in the past season were dedicated to Soviet art. The leaders in this area have been the long-known at the market Gallery of Leonid Shishkin and the new gallery "Sovcom". The antiquary press has written much about LS. Shishskin's activities. Today we will give the floor to the director of the gallery "Sovcom" Yuri Tyukhtin. - By profession, - says Yuri Tyukhtin. - I am a financier. I have been collecting fine art for ten years. I know many collectors, gallery keepers and dealers. Our gallery "Sovcom" started with the corporate collection of "Sovcombank". Gradually we had gained a good collection of Soviet fine art and graphics. Many friends and colleagues addressed me when they wanted to buy something valuable or interesting. I invited them to us. That is how a union of art Lovers gathered around the gallery and the first clients were attracted. Then we decided to start professional antiques business. We considered all "pros and contras"; it seemed Like the situation at the Russian antiques market in the autumn 2004 was favourable. In Russia there are already people ready to buy artworks, there are professional collectors; some people invest into antiques. I know collectors who annually buy artworks for 1 million dollars; but they spend 900 thousand at foreign auctions and only 100 thousand in Russia. I think that Russians should buy Russian art in this country: the choice here is wider, the prices Lower. What frightens people is the Lack of guarantees. Big stable purchases are'possible only at the civilized market. We are trying to create an open company, where the "rules" are legal and clear to both sellers and buyers. Right in the beginning we made a schedule of the future auctions. By that time we had about 2000 items in our collection; this was enough for a year of auctions. A catalogue is issued for every auction. For our catalogues, we use our special design. On the front page there is always a painting by Leonid Soyfertis. By the way, we have managed to buy an almost complete collection of this artist's works from his relatives. During this season we were selling his works successfully, and the prices were growing from auction to auction. At the December auction Soyfertis's works sold by 550-600 dollars, and at the last - in June - people bought them for 1150-1500 dollars, and a few paintings sold by 2800-3000 dollars. We had a difficult task - to actively enter the existing antiques environment, to attract the attention of new collectors. I think we have solved it. But, of course, the main thing is the art that we are offering. First we positioned ourselves as a gallery of Soviet and modern fine art. But we gathered the collection of the last in the season, fifth action from different "layers" and called it "Only Best Names of Russian, Soviet, and Modern Art". We're interested in the leading artists of the Russian fine art of the XX century. The main thing is the quality of art; it is always popular. Creative individuality, creative "ego" of an artist is what matters; awards and regalia are less important. This is the criterion we use when choosing works of modern fine art. We set up long-time cooperation with artists and conclude long-term contracts (from five years) with them. We organize non-commercial exhibitions, inviting to them our old friends and new clients. For example, in the past season we held a personal exhibition of German Zavyalov - an original, very talented Russian artist of rare integrity. Half of the exhibited works were sold. At the last auction held in June we set a sales record. Only eleven of the one hundred of paintings had not been sold. By some reasons unknown to me, the works of the artists from the creative union "Jack of Diamonds" (A. Lentulov, P. Konchalovskiy and R. Falc) didn't find their buyers. Excellent landscapes created by these artists in the 1930s did not attract the public. Maybe it was the very dating of them that put away potential collectors. The start offers were much lower than the estimate. We sold for 25,000 dollars - twice more than the start price - "Landscape with a Thistle" by Marevna (Maria Vorobyeva-Stebelskaya), a Russian Parisian, whose exhibition recently took place in the Tretyakov Gallery. The prices for the XX century Russian fine art, in particular, for Soviet fine art, are constantly growing. Over the season they have grown by 50%. It applies not only to the paintings of the classics - A. Deyneka, Y. Pimenov, D. Nalbandyan, N. Romadin - but also to the works of other artists of that period. Several antiquarian organizations can successfully work in the area of Soviet art. We cooperate with Leonid Stepanovich Shishkin: we have established stable friendly relationships and exchange information. In the next season we are going to expand our auctions and add new topics. There is a plan to hold an auction of Soviet porcelain. Besides, in 2006 we will have an auction of Soviet photography and posters. The Russian art of the XX century offers unlimited possibilities for antiquaries. One just has to work, and work professionally.

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