Hammer Prices and Museum Acquisitions

A Tremendous Russian Auction and Million-kroner Hammer Prices

Several of the highest hammer prices were fetched on the last day of the auction, where we offered art and antiques from the Tsarist period in Russia. It was a tremendous end to the auction, with a total hammer price of 27.6 million Danish kroner and 7 million-kroner hammer prices, the highest of which was DKK 4.6 million for a large Russian church icon from the 1500s depicting Christ being taken down from the cross. An icon has never before been sold for such a hefty sum on the international art market. Another of the auction’s million-kroner hammer prices of DKK 2.9 million was fetched for a unique picture book by Hans Christian Andersen from 1868–69, which he made for the 3-year-old Marie Henriques. In the modern section of the auction, the American artist Robert Rauschenberg achieved a hammer price of DKK 1.16 million for a photographic collage entitled “Harvest” from 2007.

Danish–West Indian History and a Bracelet from “The King of Diamonds”

We also saw a genuine piece of Danish colonial history in the form of an atypical family portrait by Wilhelm Marstrand, which portrays the beautiful Afro-Caribbean nanny Justina with the artist’s two nieces Emily Ottilie and Annie Laetitia – a work which fetched the impressive hammer price of DKK 900,000 against an estimate of DKK 600,000–800,000. When it came to the jewellery up for auction, a beautiful diamond bracelet by the jeweller Harry Winston, alias “The King of Diamonds”, attracted a great deal of international interest and was sold for DKK 510,000 – our record for a bracelet.

Nordic Art Deco and Poul Kjærholm’s Hanging Sofa

Nordic design has long been a popular part of our auctions, and this time we presented a hitherto unknown highlight in Danish design history with a one-of-a-kind set of furniture from 1941 by the unknown theatre architect Orla Høyer. The set consisted of a daybed, a pair of cabinets, a chest of drawers and a display cabinet, which were sold separately, fetching an impressive hammer price of DKK 420,000 in total. There was also a great demand for Poul Kjærholm’s “PK 26” – a set of three wall-hung sofa modules upholstered in original patinated Niger leather, for which the happy buyer paid DKK 330,000.

New Works Purchased by the Museums

As always, our auction was followed closely by the museum world. This time, nine of the works were purchased by museums, which can now add a new treasure to its collection. The museums included the National Museum in Stockholm, which this time returned home with two works – N.P. Holbech’s portrait of a young woman from 1837 and a model drawing by C.W. Eckersberg from 1833. Skagens Museum acquired P.S. Krøyer’s portrait from 1890 of his wife Marie painting on their honeymoon in Italy, and Holger Drachmann’s beautiful sunset from Skagen beach on a January day in 1907. Other museums included Ribe Art Museum, Øregaard Museum and the Hirschsprung Collection. Museum Jorn won the bidding round for Asger Jorn’s lithograph entitled “Jyske Linier”:

“This variant print is one of the few graphic works by Jorn that was missing from the museum's almost complete collection of more than 500 of the artist’s print motifs. The work is considered to be an important link between the more famous version of the “Jyske Linier” lithograph without a coloured background and the ceramic relief of the same title from 1956, which has a similar yellow background. The work also provides unique documentation of Jorn’s playful aesthetic practice in connection with the expressive possibilities offered by print graphics,” explains Lucas Haberkorn, Curator of Museum Jorn.

We would like to congratulate the museums on their new acquisitions!

View the list of museum acquisitions

The next traditional auction at Bredgade will take place in September. We look forward to seeing everyone again!