By John Helmer, Moscow The name Isaac (lead image, right), son of Abraham (centre) and Sarah (left) in the Old Testament book of Genesis, meant “he laughs”. That was because Isaac was conceived when his mother thought she was long past child-bearing,  so Abraham started laughing at her news. He got more serious, later in […]

by Editor - Tuesday, May 9th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow There have been many, many advertisements for the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, but none as alluring as those he composed and performed for himself. Now that he has died, and his body is to return this week from Oklahoma for burial near Moscow, there will be many more advertisements. Some will be […]

by Editor - Monday, April 3rd, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow There are large departments at the Pentagon and NATO headquarters for fabricating lies and faking news. They create the threats against which military forces are the defence. The more threats there are in circulation, the more it costs to produce them, and also to defend against them.  So President Donald Trump […]

by Editor - Sunday, March 5th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow On March 1, the Brussels art dealer Bru Sale has announced it will auction  184 lots in a collection the dealer in charge,  Didier Sacareau,  is calling Russian art paintings and drawings. Works by some of the best-known artists among the Russian avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century are on […]

by Editor - Monday, February 27th, 2017
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By John Helmer, Moscow Naturally, war is about winning and losing. So there are songs to pick up your courage in advance, and songs of grief for what comes after.  There are also songs to help you forget what is happening. Since the destruction of Russia which Boris Yeltsin and the Clinton family began, together, […]

by Editor - Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow  If you were the only person in the world who thought yourself a genius, it would be an embarrassment to be named Barry Parsnip. Robert Zimmerman solved the nomenclature problem. He became Bob Dylan – and Hey Presto! He won the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2016. Barry Parsnip (aka Boris […]

by Editor - Sunday, November 6th, 2016
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By Simon Hewitt, Geneva* AN AUCTION staged in Paris this March has written another unedifying chapter in the art market history of the Russian Avant-Garde.

by Editor - Tuesday, May 10th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow A rare drawing by Ilya Chashnik, a Russian artist who died in St. Petersburg in 1929, was sold last month by the Tajan art auction house after a warning that the provenance claimed for the work was false. The work was sold on March 8, according to Tajan’s specialist for modern […]

by Editor - Thursday, April 21st, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow Faking of Russian paintings by forgers, certified by fraudsters pretending to be experts, is on trial in St. Petersburg and Wiesbaden, Germany, but until the verdicts are delivered, there is no certainty of value, no reliable pricing. Suspicious canvases are surfacing regularly in all the European capitals, including Moscow. But as […]

by Editor - Monday, April 18th, 2016
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By John Helmer, Moscow If the London art market is a test of reality, then last week’s Russian Week sales demonstrate that Russian buyers are poorer, and there is now less Russian money for buying Russian paintings, jewellery, porcelain and other art objects than at any time since Russian Week started in London in 2005. […]

by Editor - Sunday, December 6th, 2015
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