Hammer Prices and Museum Purchases

Here at Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers, we have just completed the year’s first traditional auction. In total, we had more than 1,100 lots for sale at our auction in Copenhagen. 

Denmark's Most Expensive Sofa

Especially the design auction provided several surprises. The architect Flemming Lassen led the charge with two furniture pieces that he designed in 1935. The lots consisted of a sofa and the armchair "The Tired Man". Both pieces appear with their original upholstery and were produced by the cabinetmakers A.J. Iversen and Jakob Kjær. After a fierce bidding war on the phones, the sofa was sold for DKK 610,000. The piece of furniture thereby became the most expensive sofa ever sold in Denmark. "The Tired Man" followed with a hammer price of DKK 590,000. In the category of modern decorative art, the focus was on Axel Salto. One of his stoneware vases, modelled in the "Budded Style" and decorated with Solfatara glaze, achieved an impressive hammer price of DKK 410,000.

Photo Art Reached New Heights

At the auction for modern art, we achieved another record with a work form 1994 by Cindy Sherman, one of the most influential and controversial photographers of contemporary times. In the work sold at the auction, Sherman depicts three deformed dolls in a composition with strong sexual overtones that sends a critical nod to the Surrealists' artistic worship of fetishism. The price was DKK 220,000, and the photograph thereby became the most expensive photographic piece of art ever sold at our auctions. There was also a high demand for artwork by other international contemporary artists, such as the two Swiss artists Olaf Breuning and Not Vital, whose works at the auction came from a Danish private collection. Breuning’s sculptural group "The Humans" was sold for DKK 350,000, while Not Vital's fifteen bronze tongues made it to DKK 170,000.

New Works for the Museums

As usual, the Danish museums were among the bidders at the auction, and here the older paintings were in high demand. The Nivaagaard Collection bought a beautiful painting by the floral painter I.L. Jensen, and within a few days the work will become part of the museum's current exhibition: "A Scent of Eternity, the Flower Painter J.L. Jensen". Øregaard Museum went home with a work by the landscape painter I.P. Møller, who had portrayed a festive picnic in Jægersborg north of Copenhagen. The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle could claim a prize in the shape of a bust of King Christian IX by the sculptor Axel Hansen. Skagen Museum had fallen in love with Anna Ancher's portrait of her mother, Ane Brøndum – a work that shows the artist's eminent ability to depict subjects close to the heart. In Sønderjylland, the Brundlund Castle Art Museum will soon be able to include a portrait by F.C. Gröger in their collection. The portrait depicts Marcus Pauli Karenus Holst von Schmidten, who, among other job titles, held the position as mayor of the town of Rudkøbing in the years 1815-1820.

View the list of recent museum purchases at our auctions

We look forward to welcoming you at the next traditional auction in Copenhagen this coming May. In the meantime, there are plenty of auction lots to discover and bid on at our daily online auctions. View the current selection here