Bruun Rasmussen expands its activities

Bruun Rasmussen has just now taken over Jan Helding Auctions, a major player in the field of stamps and postcards for a number of years.

17 November 2008

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Since Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers of Fine Art went into business in 1948, the auctioneer's mallet has come down well in excess of a million times. The ivory mallet remains the same, but along the way it has been supplemented with a virtual hammer, and, today, this virtual hammer comes down just as effectively as its ivory counterpart in the big auction house in Bredgade.

Bruun Rasmussen's growth is not only due to the expansion with auctions on the Internet. It is also, and very much so, the result of a number of strategic takeovers of competing Danish auction houses. These takeovers have all had the clear purpose of further strengthening Bruun Rasmussen's position in the international art market.

Stamps at Bruun Rasmussen

In continuation of these takeovers, Bruun Rasmussen has just now reached an agreement on the takeover of the well-reputed stamp business, Jan Helding Auctions. This company, situated in Frederiksberg, has held highly competitive auctions of stamps and postcards for many years. As part of the agreement, Jan Helding, aged 49, is also transferred to Bruun Rasmussen where he will henceforth head the recently established department of stamps and postcards.

"I found it quite natural that my business should be bought by Bruun Rasmussen, since I have always held this particular auction house to represent a high level of expertise and a high professional standard that was similar to my own. I look very much forward to take up the many new challenges. Working in a large organisation will allow me to increase my efforts to create stamp auctions that are clearly focussed on the international market", explains Jan Helding who has worked with stamps professionally for more than 20 years - for the last 10 years exclusively in the auction market.

By way of this arrangement, yet another dream has come true for Jan Helding: He will now be able to devote himself entirely to the professional sale and valuation of stamps, postal history and postcards rather than administrative tasks.

Jan Helding is accompanied by the experienced Poul Toft Simonsen, aged 40, who comes from a position as head of the department of stamps at Lauritz.com prior to which he was employed for several years at Thomas Høiland Auctions.

"Setting up a strong department of stamps is part of the endeavour to strengthen our position as the leading auction house in Scandinavia – not just within art, design and antiques, but also within classic collectibles, a field that naturally includes stamps and postcards", explains Development Director Frederik Bruun Rasmussen.

The establishment of a serious and competitive department of stamps has been in preparation for a long time, and it forms a natural continuation of Bruun Rasmussen's successful launching of an international department of coins a mere two years ago when the coin expert Michael Fornitz was hired by Bruun Rasmussen after having been employed at Thomas Høiland Auctions for a number of years.

This new area of business is in accordance with the plans of Bruun Rasmussen's newly established publishing wing whose first publication concerns the very topic of the postcard as a collectible. The book has been written by three of Denmark's biggest and most knowledgeable collectors of postcards, and it offers, among other things, a price guide for new as well as established collectors – something that has been desperately needed for a long time.

Jan Helding will conduct his last traditional auction, the catalogue of which has just been issued, January 28th. As of February 15th he will be present at Bruun Rasmussen in Bredgade.