2014 is the official UK-Russian Year of cultural exchange, an initiative signed by William Hague and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in March 2013.  Despite some diplomatic tensions over the last few years over 500,000 Russians have made England their home citing reasons such as safety, good schools, mild climate and sea air.
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An exhibition devoted to Soviet Sporting art has just opened at Sotheby’s in London.  ‘Soviet Art Soviet Sport’ will be showing December 19, 2013 – January 14, 2014 and is drawn from the holdings of the Institute of Russian Realist Art and various private collections.  The Institute of Realist Art has been formed by Alexey
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  EAST BUYS WEST – Spears Magazine, September 2013. The efforts of auction houses and dealers to help Chinese, Russian and Indian collectors acquire a taste for Western art are starting to pay off, judging by recent sales With the wrap-up of Old Masters week and the Masterpiece fair in London, an exhausted art market
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  Christie’s has announced its valuation of the 2,800 artworks from the Detroit institute of Arts.  They believe they are worth between $454 million and $867 million. Christie’s spent three months determining the collection’s fair market value after Detroit filed for bankruptcy last summer. Its findings were submitted in the long-awaited report to Detroit’s state-appointed emergency
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Kazemir Malevich and the Russian Avant Garde comes to Tate Modern on July 17 through to October 24th.  This is the largest Malevich exhibition for
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  Yesterday, the Kandinsky Prize 2013 (the Russian award established in 2007 in Moscow on Shalva Breus’ initiative, publisher of ArtChronika magazine and president of the eponymous cultural foundation) and its international jury team announced the winners. The Project of the year (40.000 Euros) went to Irina Nakhova for Without a Title, while the Young Artist of the
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According to Colin Gleadell in the Luxury section of London’s Telegraph newspaper Russian buyers were out in force at the recent Old Master sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London.  Russian buyers have mainly stuck to Russian art over the last 2o years but it may that they are finally starting to persue other art categories
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Under pressure from activist shareholder Dan Loeb and his Third Point hedge fund Sotheby’s continues to strengthen its senior management with the recent appointment of Alfredo Gangotena as Head of Marketing.  Until July, when he resigned, Gangotena was marketing chief of Mastercard where he had considerable success.  In a Sotheby’s press release Gangotena is described
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An interesting profile of David Zwirner has been published in the New Yorker which gives an insight into the background and dealing practice of one today’s leading contemporary art dealers. Dealers Hand – Why are so many people paying so much money for art?  Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, Dec 2 2013. Very important people
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