Bonhams
Online auction
March, 2023
Georgian Art at the International Auction
A joint project of the London based auction house Bonhams and Baia Gallery
This year, on March 6-16, 2023, the Bonhams auction house will host in London the online auction Art From Georgia and Armenia. Until now the works of the Georgian artists who have been shown in the museums were presented in the Russian section that jointly represented the post-soviet countries. This will be the first attempt to present Georgia and Georgian art in the international art market separately. It is very complicated for the auction houses to introduce small countries as independent participants of the auctions and therefore, they try to unite several countries under one umbrella. For this purpose, in 2013-2014, Sotheby’s auction house attempted to establish a special section of the Caucasian and Central Asian Art and organized two large scale exhibitions and sales titled On the Crossroads. Baia Gallery as one of the participants of the project presented there the works of the Georgian artists ranging from the 1960s to modern times (Alexandre Bandzeladze, Gibson Khundadze, Mamia Malazonia, Avto Varazi, Merab Abramishvili, Kote Sulaberadze, Irakli Parjiani, Levan Choghoshvili, Koka Ramishvili and Tamar Kvesitadze). This exhibition turned into a starting point for successful sales of Merab Abramishvili’s works, and the fact led to increase of awareness about the Georgian art on international level. Since that exhibition various auction houses became interested in contemporary Georgian art, and its specific representatives.
For the first time in the history of auction the London based auction house Bonhams and Baia Gallery will present Georgian art in a regional format. On March 6 the auction will launch the online bidding. Preliminary auctioning process already involves Georgian and foreign collectors. Their participation is of an utmost importance as it is the collectors’ interest that determines the future of the Georgian art auction, its establishment on the international sales platform, increase of an investment index and an international status of Georgian art. In addition, the auction and related characteristic surprises can completely change local image of the Georgian art market or affect personal sales history of individual artists.
Press Release:
www.bonhams.com/press_release/36201
Auction Results:
https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28096/art-from-georgia-and-armenia-online-sale/