JACK WARREN WINS AXA AWARD; LOW RESULTS FOR CHRISTIE’S RUSSIAN AUCTION

AXA Art Insurance announced today that painter Terry Winters has selected the Brooklyn-based artist Jack Warren as the recipient of the 2008 AXA Artist Award. Warren will be presented the award and a twenty-five-thousand-dollar cash grant at the 2008 International Collectors’ Dinner in celebration of Art Basel Miami Beach, to be held at the Margulies Warehouse on December 3rd.

In another news, on Wednesday Christie’s sold a drawing earmarked to fetch three thousand dollars for a mere fifteen at its auction of Russian art in London, summing up the mood at a sale that missed the low forecast by almost half, reports Bloomberg’s John Varoli. Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky’s hand shot up when auctioneer James Bruce-Gardyne, exasperated by the salesroom’s cold response all day, gestured toward the piece Troika Leaving the Farmstead_, and asked, “Will anyone give me ten pounds?” Christie’s could not confirm whether this is the cheapest lot the company has ever sold. The purchase was one of 117 nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian artworks that Christie’s sold for a combined $12.2 million yesterday. The company’s presale low estimate was $22.4 million. The auction caps one of the most dismal weeks of Russian art sales in London in nearly a decade.