The auction “Russian and Western European Art of XIX - XX Centuries” (No. 131) was held in the Sovcom Gallery yesterday evening, on October 25. The organizers had announced ‘the largest auction for the current half year’.
The auction was really the largest one not only by the number of exposed paintings (208 lots), but also by attendance (there were from 50 to 60 persons present at any time in the hall). The primary bids were made in the hall, and a good half participants acquired lots, but not 6-8 participants did as it’s often happens. According to my conservative estimate, 30 participants have made purchases in the hall! And they acquired not one or two lots, but several paintings each. There were no bids with whomping excess of estimates, but, as a whole, a lot of acquirements have been made. (60 percent of lots were sold.) Lots were sold either at the lowest estimate, or with competition of three, or four, steps. 95 lots have been purchased in the hall; only 8 lots were acquired on the phone; remote bids won as many as 20 times.
I got the impression that the participants in the hall were rather similar; they bargained intelligently and according to their financial resources. There were no “heavyweights” who would buy up everything and make the bargaining to raise to lofty heights not available for most participants. The auction went off together with good and normally distributed demand; in my opinion, it was supported by excellent collection of lots and their fair value. The catalogue of sale of Sovcom proved to be really good; the lots were to fit every taste, from the Itinerants to the nonconformists, and from decorative flower still-life paintings for country houses to the newspaper collages made by V.I. Ufimtsev in 1920s. The audience in the hall was diverse as well, of both sexes and of all ages; the young dealers took back rows and doorways.
AI never fails to mention in its releases that a bad auctioneer may ruin the best catalogue of sale, and a good auctioneer together with rather good catalogue of sale may show perfect results! Yuri Tyukhtin is a brilliant auctioneer. (We have already said that a hundred times and we are pleased to mention it once again.) A couple of good arguments is enough for the lot to be knocked down. “We received the results of examination of this painting only yesterday,”- the auctioneer remarked about the landscape painting of ‘Waterfront’ by Konstantin Gorbatov (Lot # 83), and the bargaining immediately came up to 360 thousand RUB (the estimate amounted to 300-500 thousand RUB). The watercolour of night Petersburg by unknown artist of the early XX century was exposed with the estimate of 30-45thousand RUB, but nobody expressed any interest. “The signature is present, but we failed to decipher. Perhaps, you will have better luck,” Mr. Tyukhtin remarked, and the result of 36thousand RUB was not long in coming. In addition, a funny incident took place. The bargaining for the landscape painting by David Burliuk (Lot # 31) started with 150thousand RUB. However, as soon as the fortunate buyer has been found, it suddenly appeared that the estimate was improper, and the starting price should be 1.5 million RUB. The auctioneer commented on this incident so easily and naturally that no one protested; the painting, though, was not sold.
http://artinvestment.ru/invest/russia/20121029_sovcom_report.html
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