A German aristocrat’s art collection fetched almost twice as much as forecast, the bright spot of yesterday’s four Russian-art auctions in London which tallied a less-than-expected 20.8 million pounds ($31.5 million).

Ninety-four of the 100 lots belonging to HRH Monika, Princess of Hanover, Countess zu Solms-Laubach, sold for 1.95 million pounds at Sotheby’s sale, against a presale high forecast of 1.1 million pounds. Other sales of Russian art yesterday found buyers for less than two-thirds of the lots, missing the combined presale low estimates of 28.4 million pounds.

“We’re at an awkward moment where the market doesn’t want to buy at the old prices, and sellers don’t want to accept the new reality,” said London-based art dealer Ivan Samarine.

Even with the sale of the princess’s collection, yesterday’s results mark a break with nine years of gains in Russian-art auction prices fuelled by an economy that benefited from charging buyers records for oil and metals. Last year, Sotheby’s annual sale of Russian art totaled $180 million, compared with $6 million in 2000.

Sotheby’s took 16.1 million pounds for two sales, against Christie’s International’s 3 million pounds and Bonham’s 1.7 million pounds. Three of the four auctions missed the companies’ own presale low estimates.

Several works tipped to fetch top prices didn’t sell. At Sotheby’s auction, Ivan Aivazovsky‘s 1845 “View of Constantinople and the Bosphorus” flopped after bidding stopped at 2.4 million pounds, below the low estimate of 2.5 million pounds. At Christie’s morning auction of Faberge works, porcelain, and Imperial pieces, the auction house didn’t sell a 1766 silver tureen that had a low estimate of 400,000 pounds.

Unrealistic Prices

Some collectors and dealers blame the weak results on unrealistically high prices auction houses set amid a global financial crisis that triggered a 65 percent drop in the Russian stock market in the last six months.

“We need to get past this otherwise the market risks stagnating,” said Samarine.

Christie’s sold about 59 percent of the 242 lots of Faberge works, porcelain, and Imperial ware. The priciest lot was an 1870 diamond-studded St. Anne military medal of honor made by Nicholls and Plincke in St. Petersburg, which went to a European collector for 265,000 pounds, against a high estimate of 280,000 pounds.

Christie’s said European and American buyers dominated the sale, buying nine of the top ten lots.

One-Third Sold

Bonhams sold one-third of the 244 lots offered for about 1.7 million pounds on a presale low estimate of 5.8 million pounds. None of its top lots sold.

Sotheby’s sold 59 percent of the 55 lots of 19th-century and 20th-century Russian paintings, netting 14.1 million pounds against a presale low estimate of 17.5 million pounds.

“Many of us thought only 40 percent of total lots would sell, and so the results tonight were better than expected,” said London-based dealer James Butterwick. “It’s little surprise that 94 percent of the Imperial and royal objects sold. They had impeccable provenance.”

About 78 percent of the sold lots, including gifts from Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna to her sister, Princess Thyra of Denmark, soared in fierce bidding.

Nineteen of the 32 lots sold had hammer prices at or below their low estimates, indicating their reserves were lowered. A reserve is the confidential hammer price at which a consignor agrees to sell his item.

Larionov’s Nude

The priciest item at Sotheby’s paintings auction was Mikhail Larionov’s 1906-1907 “Reclining Nude,” which fetched 1.38 million pounds, just above its low estimate of 1.2 million pounds. Three other Larionov paintings failed to sell.

Vladimir Makovsky’s 1880 work “The Rag Market in Moscow” sold for 1.33 million pounds amid weak interest and after much coaxing by the auctioneer, Mark Poltimore. The painting, featuring impoverished Muscovites in tattered rags at a city flea market, had a presale estimate of up to 1.5 million pounds.

The biggest surprise of the evening was Vasili Polenov‘s 1876 “Egyptian girl,” which sold for 1.05 million pounds, three times the top estimate. The painting was a record at auction for the artist, and features an African woman in ancient Egyptian dress.

“It’s a very rare work from Polenov’s early period,” said Moscow dealer and collector, Natalia Kournikova, who said she bought the painting for a client.

Moscow collector and dealer, Georgy Putnikov, bought for a client Boris Anisfeld’s undated impressionist work, “Flowering Tree,” for 481,000 pounds, almost twice the top estimate.

Cash Question

“Those people who still have some cash are thinking where to put it,” said Putnikov, after the sale.

Jo Vickery, head of Russian sales at Sotheby’s in London, said 30 percent of buyers were new clients, and that all of these came from Russia and the other republics of the former Soviet Union.

“That is extremely encouraging and demonstrates that there continues to be an active market for Russian art,” said Vickery.

MacDougall Arts Ltd. holds its first-ever evening sale today. The top lot is a group of 122 original ink drawings by modernist painter Konstantin Somov.

Christie’s most expensive lot of the week, Natalia Goncharova’s modernist painting, “Still Life With Watermelons,” goes up for sale tomorrow with an estimate of 1.5 million pounds to 2 million pounds.