Russian art auction house enjoying great success
MacDougall's, the auction house that exclusively sells Russian art, reveals that it is coping well against some of the industry's big names. The auction house's return on sales in London for December 2009 were beaten only by Sotheby's, with the six-year-old Russian specialist recording better results than both Christies and Bonhams, according to Russia Now.
The reason for the auction house's success, says its co-director Catherine MacDougall, is that it broke with tradition and created its own model of auctioneering.
She told the news provider: "We were the first to say that Russian art should be sold in collaboration with the top art experts in Russia. They can make authoritative judgments on authenticity.
"This has been crucial to our success because the Russian art market has been awash with fakes."
MacDougall's has done the impossible, and taken a sizeable portion of the market from three auction houses that have dominated the market from more than 200 years – it now accounts for 25 per cent of the London Russian art market.
