Gagosian in Russia

The modern masters played second fiddle to a newer generation of artists at Gagosian's Barvikha Luxury Village show, a temporary outpost just outside of Moscow that closed up shop on Sunday after a 10-day run.

"I would say we had an overwhelmingly good response to our living artists," said Victoria Gelfand, a Gagosian director who oversaw "Insight?". "The show was really separated into a slightly more established section where we had works by Picasso, Miró, de Kooning, Gorsky, etc., and then we had a room of contemporary works that were created for the show or never seen before. I would say that the Moscow buyers reacted extremely well to the contemporary, fresh, 21st-century works.

How well? Gelfand wouldn't reveal a dollar amount, but said that 70% of the contemporary works went to Russian collections.

Given the noise being made about Russians swarming the art market and Gagosian's expansionist tendencies — the gallery has showrooms in cities from Los Angeles to London — it'd be reasonable to wonder if the dealer is in the market for some Russian property.

So will Gagosian return to the oligarchs' lair?

"We haven't decided what we're going to do going forward, but the first show was a real success, so I do foresee us doing something in the future," Gelfand said. "I think that we were testing the waters, in general."