Great Sales & Museum Purchases
Vilhelm Hammershøi: "Landskab fra Kongevejen ved Gentofte" (Landscape at the King's Road near Gentofte) (1892). Purchased by The David Collection for a price of DKK 4.3 million.
Peder Moos: A unique Brazilian rosewood stool with tall, open sides. Numerous inlays and woven openwork seat of boxwood. Sold for: DKK 860,000.
Alev Siesbye: A large, circular stoneware bowl. Decorated with light turquoise glaze. Sold for: DKK 150,000.
At Bruun Rasmussen we welcomed the spring season with a large international auction, where we had more than 1,000 art effects, design classics and exclusive jewellery up for auction.
The Enigmatic Hammershøi and Fine Antiques
Among the highlights of the auction were a number of works by Vilhelm Hammershøi, two of which were sold for hammer prices in the millions. One of the paintings was one of the artist's rare landscape paintings from 1892, which went for DKK 4.3 million. The other painting was one of his well-known interiors with a woman with her back turned, which achieved a hammer price of DKK 3.7 million. A pair of gold ruby glasses from the Baroque period and a Montelupo-faience dish from the 1500s were in great demand among the antiques and were sold for DKK 360,000 and 170,000 respectively.
Modern Art and Scandinavian Design
During the auction's second week we focused on modern art and design, and here the sales included a work by Asger Jorn entitled "La Joie d'être" (1969), which went for a price of DKK 1.8 million, and a Per Kirkeby painting from Læsø, which achieved a sale of DKK 660,000. As the auction turned to the sale of crafts, it was a tall vase in budding style by Axel Salto that emerged victorious with a hammer price of DKK 380,000, while the sale of a large blue bowl by Alev Siesbye set a world record for the artist as the bidding closed at DKK 150,000. The spring auction concluded with Nordic design, and here it was a unique stool from 1948 by cabinetmaker Peder Moos that reached the most impressive price with DKK 860,000.
Museums on the Lookout for Art
Both international and Danish museums always follow our auctions closely, and this time Ribe Art Museum bought a painting of the Ceres Temple at Paestum by the Danish Golden Age painter Constantin Hansen. The Manor Museum Gammel Estrup acquired a set of seven armchairs from the second half of the 1800s for their collection of antiques. The David Collection was also present, and they secured a great addition to their collection with the previously mentioned landscape painting by Hammershøi, which depicts the King's Road near Gentofte, north of Copenhagen. The painting will now be on display at the museum, which is located in downtown Copenhagen.
See our list of museum purchases
See you at our next international auction in June!