Forty-eight works by Bulgarian classics were selected for an auction at Victoria Auction House at the end of last week, the gallery's owner Pavel Todorov told Radio Bulgaria. „Twenty-five or 40% of auctioned works have been sold. The highest price, 2600 leva (equivalent of 1300 euro), has been raised by a work of landscape artist Konstantin Shturkelov /1889-1961/. Of course, these figures are hardly representative for the market”, he cautions. For the first time in a local auction, auction prices have reached the value of the works.

Bulgarian classic art at low prices

It turns out from what the gallery's owner says that the prices of works by Bulgarian classic artists are too low compared to price levels in Europe. This trend results from the fact that the market has been open for about 25 years only and collectors are all first-generation ones. The economic situation in the country is another factor causing prices to remain low. This presupposes a market with small volumes operating at low prices.

"It is ridiculous and insulting to see works by authors displayed at the National Academy of Art and the subject of monographs, being sold at 1000 to 2000 euro. Ideally, a work of art by a classic should cost as much as an average apartment in Sofia. Five to six years ago such prices were not a rarity. A work of art should be seen as an investment in the long term. Prices of classical works of art are always rising, despite small fluctuations,” Todorov contends.

Bulgarian art in a European perspective

Bulgarian art cannot be compared to art schools in a few European countries that emerged in 15-16 c. Today works by such artists are sold for millions at Sotheby's and Christie's. The Bulgarian classic art has developed within the past 130 years. Unfortunately, Bulgaria's first-class artists are little known. In this way the prices of their works are fully dependent on the domestic market and are humiliatingly low. Commercial interest in an artist is created once he or she becomes more popular, is sold at international auctions and enters prestigious collections. Otherwise, regardless of his or her huge talent, a little known artist remains in a different price category.

"Bulgarian art is not known abroad, because the market was actually closed until 25 years ago. To make things worse it is not being advertised overseas today either, and as a result, there is no demand for Bulgarian art on the international market. Presentation of Bulgarian art abroad has never been in the focus of attention of the country's governments in the past 25 years. Bulgaria has been member of the European Union since 2007, but the exports of works of art are still handled by a commission whose work is based on a list banning exports of works created prior to 1980. This is an outright violation of the idea for a free market. Contemporary Bulgarian artists try to show a work here and there or join an exhibition abroad but these are individual efforts. What Bulgarian art needs now is a consistent presentation abroad carried out by the community of artists and by the Ministry of Culture. Well, this is also a process that will take quite some time.”

International systems of evaluation

At the world market prices of classic art are determined by the Art Price system that monitors sales in large auction houses and galleries worldwide. Whenever a collector is interested in an artist he would look up his sales for the past two or five years, where sales took place and at what prices. There is a Russian system that tends to be more subjective and comprises about 40,000 Russian artists. The Bulgarian artists are not part of Art Price.

The Bulgarian market of works of art is still at its toddler's stage in terms of evaluation principles. Prices are determined based on a domestic market hierarchy, Todorov says. “We are aware for instance that Vladimir Dimitrov Maistora is more expensive than Ivan Trichkov /1892-1959/, and that Konstantin Tringov /1907-1981/ is cheaper than Trichkov“. Auction houses have their own statistics of sales and fix prices in this way.

Have new collectors replaced the old ones after the crisis?

Collectors widely known to the public such as Boyan Radev, Svetlin Roussev and Vassil Bozhkov have long stopped buying art. The new collectors are keeping their identities secret to make sure they are not approached as buyers, and of course, out of security reasons.

English: Daniela Konstantinova