In many ways, this past weekend’s auction of contemporary art from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) at Phillips de Pury London passed without any great surprises. As predicted in numerous media reports and the auction house’s own presale estimates, Russian artist Erik Bulatov’s ENTRANCE—NO ENTRANCE (1995) was the top lot with its final sale price of £713,250 ($1,095,480), including buyer’s premium. Unsurprisingly, works by Russian and Chinese artists sold well, vastly outperforming the limited number of works by Brazilian and Indian artists (three and eight works, respectively).
What was particularly interesting about the BRIC sale, however, in the footnotes to the optimistic headlines, were the prices for the Chinese artists…
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