82 • Autumn 2010 WHEN THE GOING GETS TOFF Ivan Lindsay on the current crop of aristocrats who are having to sell the family treasures in order to hang on to their stately piles A series of sales of artworks over the last twelve months has drawn attention to the dire straits in which many
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The art market has emerged from the recession faster than anyone expected with a dizzying series of record prices. The market barely had time to digest the US$104m paid for Giacometti’s L’homme qui marche in February before a buyer paid US$106.5m for Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust in early May. These prices have pulled
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The Getty’s beautiful garden vista overlooking the Pacific will have some competition, after the museum’s acquisition of this sweeping view of Rome by J.M.W Turner, for £29 million GBP The biggest news coming out of London earlier this month was, without a doubt, the new record at auction for J.M.W. Turner. His “Modern Rome–Campo Vaccino”
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The results of the recent June sales in London are showing that the Russian art market is making a tentative recovery after a dire 2008 and worse 2009. Average prices had increased from US$139,425 to $181,122 between 2006 and 2007 before falling back to $109,945 in 2009. The number of lots sold for more than
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In order to have taste, it is not enough to see and to know what is beautiful in a given work. One must feel beauty and be moved by it. It is not even enough to feel, to be moved in a vague way: It is essential to discern the different shades of feeling. Nothing
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Drawing Conclusions………By Ivan Lindsay The recent record price of £29.2m for a Raphael drawing confirms demand for important Old Master drawings. On Tuesday 8th December at Christie’s London a Raphael drawing entitled Head of a Muse was sold for £29.2m, doubling its estimate of £12m–16m and setting a world record price for a work on
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Picture Cataloguing Until about 40 years ago cataloguing consisted of the compilation of information about a work of art (as opposed to the catalogue raisonne which involved bringing together all the known information about an individual artist). The process of cataloguing was never deemed to require a specific skill other than the (now rare) ability
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Family Jewels Faberge heirs buy back the name and relaunch the jeweller by Ivan Lindsay Fabergé, jeweller to the last tsars, the British royal family and the European aristocracy before WWI, has been re-launched this summer by Sarah and Tatiana Fabergé.  The two cousins, the last surviving great-granddaughters of Peter Carl Fabergé, have teamed up
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‘Russian Art Revolution,’an introduction to the emerging Russian art market, Country House magazine, Issue No. 3, May 2007. A sleeping bear awakes Anyone working in upmarket real estate, oil, gas, diamonds, timber, mining or metals will already be aware that the Russians have arrived. The marriage between Russia’s vast natural resources and Western markets is
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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,
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