MOSCOW.Moscow will become the world's third biggest art market by 2010.
A great number of dealers demonstrated their belief in the promising future of Russia's art market by exhibiting at the fair, held in the Manege, a newly refurbished 18th-century exhibition hall tucked under the walls of the Kremlin.
Russia and its nascent art market is the new Eldorado for art dealers. Moscow accounts for at least 85% of the country's wealth and soaring oil prices are further boosting revenues. The city is plastered with billboards advertising luxury brands, new buildings are being hastily erected everywhere and out in the Western suburbs, a $60 million shopping mall is rising amid the birch forests: it is surrounded by $20 million homes. Dealers and decorators are scrambling to furnish these empty homes, as well as properties in the South of France and London, both obligatory for Russia's super-rich.
At the inaugural fair last year, dealers were not permitted to sell the work on show, although there was nothing to stop them finalising deals after the fair. This year, trading was permitted, although an 18% sales tax (plus customs dues) was slapped on top of any work of art imported to Russia and sold there; accordingly dealers were "reserving" works rather than selling them outright.
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Moscow - Rubens Holy Family
October 1, 2005
