Record hammer prices

CoBrA art from the Daugaard Hansen collection

The Bruun Rasmussen salesroom in Bredgade was abuzz with auction-goers at the summer’s Modern Auction. One of the highlights was the private collection of newly deceased ship designer Allan Daugaard Hansen. Several of the 50 works sold became instant top-10 auction sales hits with Asger Jorn’s charming oil painting “Frieri” (‘Wooing’) as the high flyer. Here the hammer price reached DKK 220,000 while a green-hued composition by one of his CoBrA colleagues, Egill Jacobsen, fetched DKK 30,000 above valuation to achieve a hammer price of DKK 110,000.

Record hammer prices for Heerup

Apart from holding the position as chairman of the arts association at B&W (a former Copenhagen shipyard), Allan Daugaard Hansen was himself a self-taught painter and ardent photographer and nurtured a life-long friendship with Henry Heerup, which is why his collection also offered a rare insight into the popular Danish artist’s rapturous and animated universe. High climbers at the auction included a intricately carved granite sculpture entitled ‘Napoleon’, which went for DKK 45,000 followed by the charming drawing “Hymne til glæden” (‘Ode to Joy’), which with a hammer price of DKK 42,000 soared to 400% above valuation. Paintings by Heerup achieved no less than two sales records, achieving prices exceeding DKK 400,000 for a drawing.

The auction also featured other highlights of Danish Modernism, such as one of Vilhelm Lundstrøm’s still-lifes from 1949. With a hammer price of DKK 300,000 this Lundstrøm composition achieved a record price for a work by the artist. And when Richard Mortensen’s paraphrase over Goya’s famous series of etchings entitled ‘Disasters of War’ went under the hammer the bidding reached DKK 310,000. The highest price paid at the auction was DKK 350,000 for French artist Maurice Estève’s non-figurative painting.

World record on PH

The following day was dedicated to modern graphic art and design. Here Bruun Rasmussen once again set a world record when Poul Henningsen’s PH spiral lamp, valued at between DKK 50,000 and 75,000, went for DKK 220,000. The lamp was originally designed in 1942 for the Grand Assembly Hall at Aarhus University. It proved a great challenge for the producer, Louis Poulsen, since its one-piece spiral design was extremely complicated and time-consuming to render into material form. Poul Henningsen was also associated with another of the catalogue lots to achieve a high sales price, namely his piano from 1931 that fetched DKK 250,000. The auction also featured a fine example of Danish cultural heritage from one of Copenhagen’s oldest buildings, the Stock Exchange. Kaj Gottlob’s grand chandelier for the Stock Exchange Hall achieved a hammer price of DKK 70,000. 

On both afternoons the intense atmosphere in the busy salesroom soon transpired in the bidding and the auctions achieved fine results. And when the last catalogue lot was sold on Thursday the total sales at this year’s summer Modern Auction skyrocketed to DKK 10.5 million to prove that the auction market is still vibrant.

The next Modern Auction takes place in early October.