In an exclusive interview to the magazine Art Auction Fund Managing Director Aurora Fine Art Investments, a mysterious company of one of Russia's billionaires, said the new force in the art market

said that over the past three years, fund Aurora Fine Art Investments has spent more than $ 100 million in first-class works of Russian art and antiques sverhdorogoy. In September, only one in Russia fund investments in the arts (as well as one of the most important and enigmatic works of art buyers) will provide high-quality paintings, silver, works of Faberge jewelry factory, rare books and other items at a private show in the Moscow hotel «Ritz-Carlton ». The project is very timely: the prices of Russian art is now more than ever, are high.

Company Aurora Fine Art Investments, with offices in New York and London, is looking to the works which will be presented at the show, interested customers from all over the world. But there is little doubt that the buy in will be the Russians. The total amount that had «Russian bid» Bonhams, Christie's, Sotheby's and Macdougall's this June, was 69 million pounds (135 million U.S.) - Russian nouveaux riches are willing to part with a lot of money for the possession of the artistic heritage of its country. But some experts say that the Russian art market has already reached its peak. Indeed, buyers are likely to not want to see some work worth more than four million dollars. Taking into account that «ceiling», and slowly but surely growing imbalance between supply and demand (number of excellent works in the market is not infinite), Aurora has developed a new marketing strategy to maximize profits. It tells the partner of the company Andrew Ruzhnikov, rather than to sell hundreds of works by one, members of Aurora grouped them into collections, which number about a dozen. Each of these collections can be purchased only in whole, for tens of millions of dollars. «When working together, the value of each of them increases due to their aesthetic and historical significance», - explains Ruzhnikov.

In May Ruzhnikov put up some high-quality work from the collection of Aurora at the Moscow International salon of fine arts. The audience was able to see the treasures of the main fund for the first time since September 2005 when, at the same event demonstrated the acquisition of new Aurora. The most remarkable won two imperial snuffbox and two works by Faberge: gilded tea service, and is richly decorated with clocks, which previously belonged to the English princess Margaret and were bought at Christie's London auction in 2006 for 1.1 million pounds (2.2 million dollars) .

The fact that those hours, «Royal», devoted to guess it was not difficult, although none of the display was not fitted with a plate or yarlychkom information. The mystery coated all the fund: it is not known for certain how it is organized, who manages them, who owns them and how much are all the items from his collection. We know only that founded the company 51-year-old Moscow-commodity tycoon Viktor Vekselberg. The Fund began operations in 2005, one year later, after Vekselberg bought for more than $ 100 million collection of the famous Faberge Easter eggs that belonged to the family of Forbes. The deal was made shortly before the New York auction Sotheby's, where he was to be exhibited eggs. With this purchase Vekselberg became famous in the art world. His act has given new urgency of processes occurring in the market of Russian art. Buying art became fashionable among the Russian elite, who until then rarely spend any job more than a million dollars. The whole world was given a sign: soon on the Art Market will be the new superpower. Billionaires seeking to return to Russia of its artistic heritage, the money will not skimp.

Aurora Foundation operates «in an atmosphere of secrecy», but Andrew Ruzhnikov nevertheless agreed to be interviewed Art + Auction. This is a great breakthrough: the last time a representative of the company spoke with the press in 2005. Ruzhnikov said that all the assembly of the fund is valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, but prefers not to speak about his work. «Aurora - a closed fund, and we are not looking for new investors», - he said. It seems that the company exists solely to Vekselberg, who is its principal shareholder.

Ruzhnikov noted that most items in the collection of Aurora has been acquired in the first year of the fund. The works were bought at the auction either for themselves or another of the partner, Vladimir Voronchenko (made them a condition for the sale of goods of Class «deluxe»). Among the earliest purchases worth noting items of decorative art, acquired at the famous sale of the collection SAFRA at London's Sotheby's; the important work of modern artists - «Portrait of Yuri Petrovich Yurieva» Petr Konchalovsky (1913, 792 thousand pounds, or 1.4 million) and «Bretonku» Boris Grigoriev ( not dated, 377 thousand pounds, or 684 thousand dollars) - also at Sotheby's in London, as well as tea, coffee set in 1848, made famous studio Sazikova (1.8 million dollars, the New York Sotheby's).

good «posherstiv» auctions, the Aurora have been contacted directly by the owners of. Sometimes they buy the entire private collections - such as the collection of John Train (John Traina) from San Francisco (a few hundreds of cigarette, many of which are made by Faberge). The ability of the company «store» high-quality work and even to monopolize certain niches not gone unnoticed among competing dealers and collectors. «Aurora is an impact on the market - choosing words carefully, said Alexis de Tizenhauzen (Alexis de Tiesenhausen), head of Russian art Christie's. - In its first year, they have been impressed at all. Without a doubt, the flair Ruzhnikova good things ».

Aurora Now change direction in order to get everything possible from the rapidly developing market. «We are going to buy Russian art, but only to fill any gaps in the collection. The period of rapid growth in prices for Russian art market is over, and soon the market will reach a peak », - said Ruzhnikov. He adds that the company «sees different opportunities and looking for options, the most profitable from an economic point of view». According to him, some works by Russian artists now even greater interest c investment point of view than the Impressionist paintings. Now Aurora is interested in such products. But the work of the Impressionists, which the market provides a stable high income, the fund also buys. Recently, Aurora collection enriched by several impressionistic and postimpressionistskimi works, including the creation of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Pierre-Auguste Renoir). The Fund also look to «some small collections of Impressionist, which includes the work of a very well-known artists - says Ruzhnikov. - If you see a picture of Pablo Picasso (Pablo Picasso), Rene Magritte (René Magritte), or Salvador Dali (Salvador Dali), which purchase will benefit from a financial point of view, we, of course, they buy. But we're not going to engage in hunting only on those names. We will buy only those products that have become a good investment of money ».

Source: artinfo.com