The October Revolution

Russian collectors have become a major force in the art market of late—but most have concentrated on 19th-century paintings, Fabergé, and the occasional blockbuster, of which the most famous is the $95.2m Picasso Dora Maar au Chat sold in May in New York, probably to a novice Russian buyer.

Buyers for contemporary Russian art were overwhelmingly non-Russian until around five years ago. But no longer. A new class of collectors has appeared, while contemporary galleries are springing up fast in Moscow. This year it is believed at least 30 Russian collectors have attended Frieze, and oligarch Boris Berezovsky was spotted

at the Frieze private view

on Wednesday.

A driving force behind the new interest in contemporary art is the Moscow-based Club of Contemporary Collectors, founded five years ago by financier Mikhail Tsarev and three friends. Today it has 46 members, including the French-native but Moscow-based Pierre Brochet, Natalya Ivanova (who is a partner in the new Yakult Gallery) and Vladimir Dobrovolsky, who has bought at earlier Frieze fairs.

“About 20 people in the club are really active and attend most of the main art fairs,” says Sergei Khripun, director of XL (E13), the only Russian gallery at the fair, adding that “the number of collectors is significantly up this year”. Among the works he has on show is a large “underwater” painting (Black, 2006) by the highly fashionable duo Dubossarsky and Vinogradov (sold to a Dutch museum for €55,000, $65,000).

The club’s vice-president, Claire Savoretti and fellow member Dilyara Allakhverdova, were at the fair yesterday visiting XL. Model, 2006, by Irina Korina (€10,000, $12,000), was among the pieces on view on its stand—a work that the club bought for its foundation, which aims to promote Russian contemporary art both locally and internationally and to support the artists through acquisitions.

Earlier this year the foundation organised an auction with Sotheby’s, which raised enough money to fund a school of contemporary art for a year, as well as sponsoring Russian students to study abroad.

Moscow still lacks a contemporary art museum although two collectors are opening private museums. Plastic-window mogul Igor Marklin will show his collection in Tverskaya Street in central Moscow, while a few blocks away the Ekaterina Foundation’s space will show construction tycoon Vladimir Seminikhin’s modern and contemporary art holdings.

Ms Savoretti collects for herself as well as for the foundation, but was unable to buy anything at Frieze. “Everything seemed to be sold,” she said, “but it is not too important, because coming here means I can discover the artists, get information and then hopefully buy things later,” she added.

“It took generations to recognise the importance of Malevich or Kandinsky—our aim is to ensure that today’s artists don’t have to wait so long,” says Mr Tsarev.