All entries by this author

The SWIFT system is used by over 600 financial institutions including the Bank of Russia.

Russia may be excluded from the SWIFT banking system

Sep 15th, 2014 | By

                      Bloomberg reports that the United Kingdom government is to recommend to the European Union that Russia be excluded from the SWIFT system of banking transfers.  This ranks up there as a proposal so stupid as to be on a level with invading Iraq (twice),
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CCRAC members and delegates from Lomonosov State University at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Small exhibition of Jack of Diamonds pictures to open at the Courtauld Gallery

Sep 13th, 2014 | By

                                An exhibition of 11 Jack of Diamonds paintings from the collection of Cologne based dealer Alex Lachmann is to open at The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House in London and run until 18th January 2015.  The exhibition has been
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The Bookshop at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow.

Garage to open new Library on History of Russian Contemporary Art

Sep 8th, 2014 | By

  Amid the doom and gloom of escalating US-Russo sanctions and Contemporary Art galleries closing in Moscow a rare piece of good news is that the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art is to open the first public library in Moscow devoted to Contemporary Art. The Garage, founded in 2008 by Dasha Zhukova, already has an
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Olga Golodets, Deputy Prime Minister of Russian Federations arrived in London in Janaury 2014 to inaugurate the UK-Russian Year of Cultural Exchange.

2014 UK-Russia year of Cultural Exchange ends in a whimper

Sep 3rd, 2014 | By

                        It all started so well for the 2014 UK-Russia year of cultural exchange with a dazzling series of events planned in Moscow and London including Pavlova, Nijinsky, Chekhov, Nabokov, Gagarin, Young British Artists, James Bond and Francis Bacon.  There were to be events
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The art market at entry level, paintings for sale on the railings in Green Park, London.

The year ahead in the art market

Aug 28th, 2014 | By

                              There is so much noise swirling around in the art market today that it is easy to become distracted.  Endless PR from the auction houses about their record prices and endless drivel written by journalists who have no zero understanding
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Buy Sotheby’s stock when its down?

Aug 14th, 2014 | By

  Sotheby’s stock price is considered a bell weather of the art market and its stock price is currently at a 52 week low.  James Bjorkman of Seeking Alpha makes the case below that for contrarians this might be a good time to load up on Sotheby’s stock.  Alternatively Sotheby’s share price has proved a
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Deinika

Socialist Realism: socialist in content, capitalist in price.

Jul 25th, 2014 | By

  July 24, 2014.  Yulia Vinogradova, Russia beyond the Headlines One would have thought that paintings depicting brawny workers and peasant women and promoting the Soviet ideology should have become a thing of the past, together with the rest of the USSR. However, the opposite is the case: The Soviet Union is no more but
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'Laocoon and his sons,' Marble, possibly Greek Helenistic Baroque, possibly Roman, possibly 16th century and by Michaelangelo.  Discovered in Rome in 1506.

Calls to Clean up Russian Art Market

Jul 16th, 2014 | By

  The Russian Avant Garde is full of fakes.  This is common knowledge and anyone who buys such works with no provenance at a fraction of their real value should not be suprised when they discover they have bought fakes.  The real paintings are well documented and very expensive.  If you are uncertain then a
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Kazimir Malevich, 'Head of a Peasant,' Sotheby's pounds 2,098,500.

Results of Russian Art Week June 2014

Jun 26th, 2014 | By

  Russian Art Week June 2014 Results With Russian art week over the art market is sliding into its usual summer torpor in which it will stay until the early autumn.  Clients head for their yachts and villas and art world professionals take off on holiday and hatch plans for the autumn.   As predicted problems
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Nikolai Roerich, The Signal Fires of Peace, 100 x 155cm, 1917, pounds 800,000 - 1,200,000. Bonhams, 4th June 2014.

Russian Art Week arrives in London

May 26th, 2014 | By

Russian art week starts next week in London, 2nd – 6th June.  This bi-annual event, held in May and November, features a series of auctions by the leading Russian art auctioneer’s (Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Macdougall’s and Bonham’s) and various lectures, events and dealer exhibitions.  This year, the event is part of the 2014 UK-Russia Year of
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