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Independent Media/Hermitage Round Table Moscow World Fine Art Fair May 2008
The following is a transcript in article format of the lecture given by Ivan Lindsay.
“Good evening - ladies and gentleman and auction house representatives.
I have been asked to talk on:-
‘The influence of art dealers and collectors on the development of the art market. The traditions, and tendencies of the last few years.’
I would like to begin by introducing myself. My name is Ivan Lindsay and I am art dealer with over 20 years experience in buying and selling major paintings. I deal primarily in European master paintings and have set many world record prices for artists like Canaletto, Goya and Hobbema. I set up a division to deal in Russian paintings in 2004. I am based in London and Switzerland and come from a family who have been collecting art for over 200 years. My mother’s family in Russia was Vorontsov and we built Palaces in St Petersburg, and Alupka in the Crimea when Count Mikhail Vorontosv was Governor of the Crimea. Alupka lost 537 paintings during the German occupation in 1942 and the paintings from the Vorontsov palace (built by Bartlomeo Rastrelli in 1749) on Sadovaia St, St Petersburg were dispersed around the Russian museums after 1917. My father’s family, the Earls of Crawford of Balcarres in Scotland, are major collectors of European Old Masters.
I would also like to introduce Katia Kapushesky, the art historian from Cambridge who is director of our stand here at the Moscow World fine Art Fair and who is kindly going to translate for me today.
I would like to start by saying it’s a pleasure to visit Moscow as usual and an honour to be invited to speak to such a distinguished group. I have been asked to talk on an interesting subject but in the short time I have been allocated I can only scratch the surface.
To examine this subject I would like to divide it into 3 periods:-
- 19th century.
- 1st half of 20th century
- After WW11 up until today.
But first I want to answer the question ‘What is an art dealer?’ because there seems some confusion in Russia. Whereas an auction house takes in paintings for sale and acts as an agent an art dealer monitors sales all over the world, has pictures offered to him privately and buys the best paintings for his stock. So a dealer acts primarily as a principle as opposed to an agent. For example, at my business, Lindsay Fine Art Ltd, we monitor over 50 auction houses, countless private collections and often see over 1000 paintings a week. An auction house has to sell every single picture that they take in for a sale whereas a dealer chooses the pictures he sells from out of thousands.
19th century - This was a period of huge dislocation which brought many paintings on to the market. For example some of the famous and largest sales of those times were:-
1848 - Lord Buckingham’s sale at Stowe which went on for 2 weeks.
1852 – The king of France, Louis Philippe’s Spanish picture sale at Phillips.
1859 – Lord Northwick’s collection dispersed.
1887 – Duke of Marlborough’s sale at Blenheim Place.
This mass of paintings was controlled by the art dealers. The auction room’s catalogues were very brief and did not give estimates. An example would be:-
Rembrandt, portrait of a girl, 30 x 20 ins. Attributions were wildly optimistic and, for example, anything that looked remotely like a Rembrandt was listed as a real Rembrandt.
Each of the major cities was controlled by an art dealer or 2 whose business was handed down from father to son. For example:-
London had Agnews and Colnaghi
Munich had Bohler
Paris had Sedelmayer........and so on
All the major collectors tended to take advice and buy from the art dealer in their local city. For example the great collection of Lord Iveagh, head of the Guinness Beer family, at Kenwood House in London (now a museum) was bought on the advice of Agnews.
First half of the 20th century - Saw the emergence of some character art dealers of which the most famous was Lord Duveen who advised all the leading collectors of his day such as Huntingdon/Mellon/Widener/Altman and Kress. Andrew Mellon later gave his paintings to the National Gallery in Washington.
Schukin and Morozov were advised by Ambrose Vollard.
Collectors tended to influence taste less than the dealers who often, like Vollard and the post impressionists, often had to support artist for years before they could persuade collectors to buy them. All the best collections were formed taking the advice of a dealer. Those collectors who fluttered around from dealer to dealer tended to acquire mediocre collections because the dealers, knowing they were not going to have a long term relationship with the collector, did not give them the best pictures.
After WW11 - The dealers were destroyed by the war and never recovered and this time saw the rise of the auction rooms to the powerful position they are in today. Huge price rises made it difficult for dealers to hold stock. Even 20 years ago Bond Street in London had Colnaghi/Heim/Jacobs/Alexander and Agnews and now, due to the rise of the auction rooms and the increase in property values they have all gone. Agnews was the last one remaining and they sold up last week. All that is left today are some private dealers like myself who deal quietly and privately for a small band of clients who want to buy the best pictures.
The clever PR machines of the Auction Rooms have persuaded collectors that buying art is easy; you just turn up on the day or night and stick your hand up. Or you flick through the catalogue choosing pictures like chocolates and send out your agent to buy them. Because the Russian market is so young collectors do not have much confidence yet and they feel reassured that there is an under bidder at auction so they think they must be paying a real price and getting true value. The irony is that often a man who has and pays for the best lawyers, accountants and advisers that money can find, will buy art from an auction catalogue without any advice, having never seen it and with very little idea of what he is he really buying. They say you only really found out what you have bought in the art world when you try and sell it and because the Russian art market is so young most of the current collectors have not yet tried to sell their art.
The truth is that art always was, and still is, a very difficult thing to buy. Or rather, it is easy to buy average paintings but very hard to buy great paintings. It take years to learn how the auctions really work, if a painting is real or fake, if it’s a good example, if it is in good condition or heavily restored. Most people in the art world today, in this electronic age, know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Knowing what a piece of art is really worth can only come from the experience gained from having studied art and having bought and sold thousands of paintings. Most starter collectors are very influenced by the estimate at auction thinking this must be roughly what the picture be worth. However, auction estimates are often way too high or low. When we buy at auction we pay little interest in the auction estimate and work out own valuation of the painting.
Because the Russian art market is so new most Russian collectors are just buying from the auctions and don’t know any dealers. The dealer is an endangered species but there are a few left with enormous experience.
In conclusion: - It is my hope that with fairs such as this one that the Russian collectors will learn how to benefit from the dealers experience. We have brought US$50,000,000 worth of paintings to our stand at the fair with some of the finest paintings available on the world market at the moment. We have 3 important Picassos including a rare Acrobat and Clown from his pink period. Russian museum curators have told us that our Madonna and Child by Andrea del Sarto is the most important Renaissance painting to have been brought into Russia since before 1918. We will gladly share our knowledge and experience with any collectors or curators who would like to come down to our stand and have a talk or look at some pictures. Or come and see us in Switzerland, London or Madrid. Thank you for this invitation to join your Round table discussion and it has been my pleasure to talk to you.
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