JOST A MON

The idle ramblings of a Jack of some trades, Master of none

Sep 28, 2008

Russian Art

Just a few days after I first heard of Hovhanes Aivazovsky, a 19th century artist, in Mark Grigorian's piece on the Armenian Istanbul, I find myself encountering his name anew. I caught the last half of Marcel Theroux's documentary called Oligart that shows how the super-rich in Russia have lit up a fire in the world of art and auctions, cornering pretty much any art that originated in that part of the world in the last century or so. Marcel described an auction at Sotheby's that he attended where one rather innocuous piece by Aivazovsky went for five times its opening bid. £200,000, what? I could do with that kinda moolah. (Check out some of his work here.)

The Economist had a piece on the burgeoning influence of Russians in this domain, which I just discovered Googling for Zinaida Serebriakova, an artist whose work in the 1920s is in incredible demand at the moment. (Check out some of her stuff here.)

And, if you want an idea of the sheer intensity of the Russian invasion of the art scene, take a look at this article from Sotheby's.

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