Art market feels global financial pinch

''View of St. Petersburg'' by Alexei Petrovich Bogoliubov drew no bidders yesterday.

NEW YORK - On Day 2 of the fall auction season, a Russian masterpiece expected to sell for up to $3 million at auction did not find a buyer yesterday, further underscoring the impact of the global financial crisis on the art market.

Not one hand went up when "View of St. Petersburg" by Alexei Petrovich Bogoliubov was offered at Sotheby's morning sale of important Russian works from the impressionist and modern periods.

Many other works sold at or below their presale estimates; others did not sell at all.

It was the second day of lackluster bidding at the annual fall art season. On Monday, Sotheby's kicked off the season with masterpieces by Edgar Degas, Kazimir Malevich, and Edvard Munch that fetched impressive prices. But a high percentage also went unsold - 25 works did not sell while 45 did.

Ian Peck, chief executive of the art finance firm Art Capital Group, had predicted that the lineup yesterday, which emphasized Russian artwork, would be a test of the "appetite and interest" of Russian buyers.

The high-end art market had stumbled in recent months as hedge fund traders, financiers, and other deep-pocketed buyers from Russian, Europe, and the Middle East have fallen victim to turmoil in global markets.

Monday's mixed results "firmly demonstrated that the concept of a recession in the art market is not abstract but real," Peck said. "Prices in all categories - the trophies, the great, and the merely very good - were less contested, if at all, and end prices were reduced by 20 to 40 percent."

Christie's was to kick off its season's first auction last night with works by Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Manet, and Paul Cezanne.

ASSOCIATED PRESS