It will be due in no small part to the new Russian wealth. The knock-on effect of the billions of euros of capital assets that vanished out of the former Soviet union over the past 10 years is being felt in London.

Names such as Roman Abramovich, Boris Berezovsky, Leonard Blavatnik and Oleg Deripaska are familiar to anyone who reads the tabloids or the business or gossip sections of a newspaper.

These are the oligarchs, the nouveaux riches for whom London has become home.

London (now coined Londongrad) is their stomping ground, and as well as buying multimillion pound houses, many of them can now afford to buy back some of their heritage.

Added to that is the new class of rich Russians who have made London their second home and who commute weekly to Russia, leaving their wives and children behind in sumptuous homes. London's top-end estate agents and luxury retailers have felt the power of their purses . . . upmarket stores who employ Russian-speaking assistants often rake in a five-figure sum from a single shopping spree.

Such high level spending was bound to filter into London's fine art auction houses, whose turnover levels have escalated. At their annual preChristmas sales of Russian works of art, Christies and Sotheby's found that their totals were around double that of the equivalent sales last year.

Sotheby's, who hold two major Russian sales in London per year, have been astounded by the prices achieved for some Russian works . . . a work titled Gurzuf in Summer by Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin (1861-1939) sold for £920,000, which was 10 times its estimate.

But what do the enormously rich Russians want when it comes to art? It appears that they favour romantic, decorative images with a sense of nostalgia. Konstantin Andreevich Somov (1869-1939) and Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin are particular favourites.

Up to recently Korovin's decorative Parisian street scenes could be bought for a few thousand euro but his early more important works fetch much more . . . The Picnic, was sold by Sotheby's who compared it to Manet's Dejeuner sur L'herbe for just over 1m.

And such comparisons can be serious indicators as to how artists were working contemporaneously in different countries. And comparisons to the French impressionists do no harm at all. And indeed there's no reason why the public shouldn't be exposed to topquality art of both European and Russian origin. The Irish may even begin to buy into Russian art with the same gusto they bought into Irish art. After all, the frantic myopic buying of just one country's art is a phase that will inevitably balance out and open itself up to the art of other countries. And why not Russia?

It seems just the right time, then, for auctioneer Garrett O'Connor to hold his January sale of Russian art at The Radisson Hotel. He believes that art should be bought with an eye to what artists were doing in different countries.

O'Connor's sale comprises 260 works from a collector who bought them over a 30year period directly from the artists during numerous trips to Russia. Many of them were kept unframed in old suitcases and wardrobes. They are now framed and hanging on walls for the first time. Since there are either low or no reserves, it should make for exciting bidding and buying.

One of the interesting things about this sale is that a section of the catalogue is devoted to what amounts to a brief history of Russian art, which documents its stages in development from post WWI Russia right down to post Gorbachev.

Added to that there are brief biographies of all the artists included in the sale. If you wanted to get a bird's eye view of Russian art and the backgrounds of its artists this would be a good entree to the subject.

And indeed if you wanted to buy any of the paintings to further that interest the prices won't break the bank.

Furthermore the catalogue praises the collector for "the extraordinary way in which he has brought his collection together through a mass of interwoven links, showing the complete spectrum of Russian art as it progressed through the years 1920-1990."

What would have put the icing on the cake for this catalogue would have been an interview with the collector.

It seems that Ireland is now set to have ongoing sales of Russian art. Bernadette Murphy of Magil Fine Art was so impressed by the Russian artists she met during trips to St Petersburg that she decided to exhibit their work here.

Her first sell-out exhibition was held at Clontarf castle last spring, and many of the artists who participated continue to be included in the roving gallery road shows which Murphy takes around the country. Her next Dublin exhibition takes place at The Conrad Hotel in Dublin in March.

It concentrates on the work of two artists, the still lives, interiors and landscapes by Alexander Utkin and the exquisite bird paintings by Galina Reshotka. The aim of the exhibition is to bring contemporary work by living Russian artists to the public.

DIARY 15 January: Antiques and collectors Fair, Dublin Hilton Hotel, Charlemont Place, Dublin 2 25 January: O'Reilly's "ne art, jewellery, silver and painting auction, Francis Street, Dublin 30 January: Garrett O'Connor Russian Art Auction, Radisson Hotel, Stillorgan Road, Co Dublin 5 February: De Veres General auction of Irish art, RHA Gallagher Gallery, Ely Place, Dublin 2 22 February: Whytes Irish art auction, RDS, Dublin 4