MacDougall's is a privately owned international auction house based in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Founded in 2004, it is one of Britain's youngest, but fastest growing auction houses. With around 20m pounds per year in auction sales, MacDougall's is now the 5th or 6th largest auction house in Britain, and consistently one of the three largest in the world for its speciality: Russian Art. The firm has its salerooms in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and representatives in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, and Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

.

History

As it held its first auction in November 2004, the firm is relatively young. However, with most of the staff speaking Russian, with leading art experts based in Russia, and given the founders' experience as Russian Art collectors, it has been able to exploit this specialist niche and grow quickly.

Two seasons of Russian Art Sales in London - June and December - dominate the world market for Russian Art, with specialised sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, MacDougall’s and Bonham's. In 2008 MacDougall’s reached second place behind Sotheby’s, while in December 2009, it outsold all three competitors in Russian paintings.

In June 2010, MacDougall's sold 900,000 pounds worth of icons, the largest icon sale of the year, and held its inaugural auction of Russian Works on Paper, the world's first specialist sale in this sector, raising over 1.5m pounds.

MacDougall's plans to expand to Old Masters and 19C European Art

Western art history

Western art is the art of the North American and European countries, and art created in the forms accepted by those countries.Written histories of Western art often begin with the art of the Ancient Middle East, Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Aegean civilisations, dating from the 3rd millennium BC...

in July 2011.

Sources

"Battling Russian Billionaires Push London Art Auctions Up 90%", Bloomberg, June 11, 2010

"Profile: MacDougall's Art Auctions, Specialists in the Midas Touch", Daily Telegraph, 23 February 2010

"Russian Art Snapped Up in $65.6 Million Auction, Best in a Year Share Business" Bloomberg Dec. 4 2010

"The art market: Street cred for Caro", Financial Times, November 28, 2009

"MacDougall's", Artchronica (Moscow, in Russian), November 2009

"MacDougall's", Expert (Kiev, in Russian), 4 Oct 2010