50 years of Christie’s department of Russian Art

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Christie’s department of Russian Art. In this half a century, the department has achieved the unparalleled success with Russian art and became one of the leading players in its market.

The first department of Russian Art was founded in 1969 in Geneva and in 1970 the first auction of Russian Art was held at Christie’s. Landmark sales of Fabergé eggs and Soviet porcelain swiftly followed, with Christie’s handling the most prestigious collections of Russian Works of Art in the field, including Clore, Forbes, Greenfield, Kazan and Provatoroff. The Christie’s currently holds the record for the highest price ever paid for a Russian painting at auction, Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition, which sold for $85,812,500 in 2018, and for the most expensive Russian Work of Art sold in the category, the Rothschild Fabergé Egg which sold for US$18,576,214 in 2007. Russian auctions in London are held twice a year.

The anniversary year is going to be a blast as well. It brought a very valuable work of art from the Fabergé collection – a tiara that was made in 1904 as a wedding gift from Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1882-1945) to his bride Princess Alexandra of Hanover and Cumberland (1882-1963). This Fabergé tiara is of symbolic design with forget-me-not flowers tied with ribbon bows, signifying, true and eternal love, pierced by arrows representing cupid, a token of endearment, attraction and affection. Composed of nine graduated pear-shaped aquamarines, old, cushion and rose-cut diamonds, this historic tiara will be offered at auction for the first time in the upcoming Magnificent Jewels sale on 15 May in Geneva, and is offered with a pre-sale estimate of $ 230,000-340,000. Curiously, it’s not only the tiara that the auction house has found, but also the correspondence between the Duke and Evgeniy Fabergé discussing the details of the future piece. Parts of this correspondence will also be presented at the upcoming Swiss auction.

Team of the Christie’s Russian Art department

Оценивая прошедшие годы работы русского департамента Christie’s, его директор Алексей Тизенгаузен отметил, что рынок изменился, конечно, он уже не такой, каким был несколько десятилетий назад. Впрочем, интерес к русскому искусству никуда не уходит, меняются лишь предпочтения клиентов. «Никогда не знаешь заранее, как будет двигаться рынок, — говорит Тизенгаузен. — Конечно, мы стараемся предугадать вкусы и оценить предметы, но клиент всегда стоит во главе угла — невозможно наперед узнать, что ему понравится и сколько он готов будет за это заплатить. Мы наблюдаем за рынком, стараемся его понять и двигаться вровень с ним». Он также добавил: «Пусть многие говорят, что рынок сейчас — очень тихий, это не так, результаты мы получаем весьма удачные, интерес как к художественным картинам, так и к прикладному искусству по-прежнему велик, и появляется много новых коллекционеров русского искусства».

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