Records and Museum Purchases

During the first two weeks of June we at Bruun Rasmussen put 1,300 lots of art, antiques, modern design, artware, and jewellery under the hammer at the summer’s international auction in Bredgade. It was some hectic days and evenings in the old auction hall. A large number of guests came from near and far, and bids poured in from all over the world on our telephones.

A Record Auction

One of the major surprises of the auction was Turkish artist Mehmed Melih Devrim Nèjad, who has lately enjoyed growing international interest. A handful of his coloristic and abstract paintings were put under the hammer, and it finished with a Danish auction record of DKK 850,000 for the picture ”A Chopin”. This also became the highest priced item at the auction, and four other pictures by this artist ended up selling at prices far exceeding the valuation.

Another record fell, when Tapio Wirkkala’s wonderful Kantarelli-vase from 1946 was knocked down at DKK 440.000, and earned the status of being the most expensive piece of modern glassware ever sold in Denmark. What’s more, Viggo Boesen’s “The Little Petra” easy chair set a world record, when a pair of them was sold for DKK 240,000 on the last night of the auction.

Other High Jumpers at the Auction

Second in the line of exceptional hammer prices at the auction came the fine Russian winter landscape by Konstantin Ivanivich Gorbatov, which was sold at DKK 780,000. In a completely different ball game, a winged armchair by Frits Henningsen fetched a hammer price of DKK 280,000, while the PH pendant “PH-Septima-5” went for a massive DKK 150,000.

Also the jewellery and men’s wristwatches were very much in demand, and especially when the turn came to a Patek Philippe gold watch with perpetual calendar. Here the final price was DKK 170,000, and when American actor Tony Curtis’ tanzanite ring was on the podium, the hammer did not stop until DKK 80,000.

Classic furniture was very successful, too. An impressive Baroque Hamburger cabinet from the late 17th century was sold well above the valuation with a knock at DKK 130,000, and a French Napoleon III suite from the end of the 19th century reached a similar price.

Museum-Class Art

The summer auction was followed closely by a number of Danish museums, and some of them can now look forward to expanding their collections with new additions. The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle was looking for new goodies and they succeded with two portraits of prominent Danish personalities. One of them is Jens Juel’s picture of Niels Ryberg, advisor to the King and merchant, from the end of the 18th century – a study for the well known painting ”The Ryberg Family Picture”. The other painting now on it’s way to the museum’s collection is Wilhelm Marstrand’s portrait of Anker Vilhelm Frederik Bornemann, Bachelor of Laws.

The Skovgaard Museum Shopping

The Skovgaard Museum in Viborg can also be pleased with their new addition. They bought a beautiful painting by Viggo Pedersen from the early 1880s, where the artist lived in the Italian city of Sora:

”With the aid of the Augustinus Foundation and the Danish Agency for Culture it became possible for us to buy Viggo Pedersen’s fine Italian landscape. From July 25th it can be seen at a special exhibition of our finest works of art, which we are planning on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the museum,” says museum manager Anne-Mette Villumsen.

At Bruun Rasmussen we are pleased to be able to handle museum-class art, and thus contribute to the extension of the collections of Danish and foreign museums. After every international auction we update our list of museum purchases. You can see the list under ”Sale and valuation” on our webpage.

Submission for the Fall Auction

We are already looking for objects for this fall’s international auction. The auction will comprise the following categories: Classic art, antiques, and jewellery plus modern art, furniture, and design. Submission deadlines are in the first half of August, so drop by one of our offices during summer in order to get a non-binding valuation – it is totally free of charge!