Artists’ union to auction works after losing nearly EUR 700,000

The Estonian Artists’ Union will auction works from its collection and pieces donated by artists to help offset nearly EUR 700,000 lost in a fraud in May, ERR reported. Union council member Jaanus Samma said it was less painful to sell artworks than artists’ studios owned by the union.

The auction will run online from October 8 to 10 and will include works acquired mainly from well-known Estonian artists who exhibited at the union’s spring and autumn exhibitions.

“We have decided to sell part of the collection. Certainly not everything, and a very important part will remain,” Samma said on ERR’s Vikerhommik programme. “But when faced with the choice of selling a studio where artists work or a painting, it is less painful to give up the latter.”

Samma said the union did not intend to enter the auction market and that the event would differ from traditional autumn auctions. It would reflect the diversity of the union, with works in a range of techniques and media.

The union decided to retain works depicting artistic life, including pieces in which artists portray one another, their work or their studios. It will also sell one of some duplicate graphic prints while keeping the other.

Artists from different generations have donated new works, with some approaching the union even before the auction was planned. Samma said the union had considered the works’ sales potential, including pieces likely to appeal to a broad audience and attract collectors.

The union has not estimated how much the auction will raise. Samma said it was not expected to cover the entire loss, but that even a partial recovery would provide significant help.

An exhibition of the works will open at the ARS building on September 18 and remain open for several weeks. The auction itself will take place online, but Samma encouraged people to view the works in person.

He said the union’s immediate operations had largely returned to normal, with bills paid and exhibitions continuing. However, the crisis was not over because the union had taken out a loan that still had to be repaid.