Hammer Prices and Museum Purchases
This autumn’s Live Auction in Copenhagen produced a long list of surprising hammer prices and museum purchases, including a Norwegian national treasure, which sold for DKK 1.7 million, and the National Gallery of Denmark’s purchase of a ballet scene by Harald Giersing.
We kicked off the autumn season at Bruun Rasmussen with a major Live Auction at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen, when more than 1,000 works of art, antiques, design classics, pieces of jewellery and wristwatches went under the hammer.
Surprises at the AuctionThe auction produced a number of unusually high hammer prices in various categories. The highest hammer price – DKK 1.7 million – was fetched for the Norwegian painter, writer and journalist Christian Krohg’s 18 illustrations from 1892 for the country’s great playwright Henrik Ibsen’s poem “Terje Vigen”, published 30 years earlier. Estimated at DKK 300,000–400,000, Peder Severin Krøyer’s painting “Solskin over havet ved Skagen Strand” (Sunshine over the sea at Skagen Beach) from 1906 sold for DKK 800,000. Among multiple lots from Valdemar’s Castle, a portrait of Valdemar Christian painted by Reinhold Timm was up for auction and sold for DKK 550,000. At the auction of design classics and decorative art, a pair of rare “Buck Chairs” by the ‘master of chairs’ himself, Hans J. Wegner, fetched a surprising hammer price of half a million kroner, not to mention Arje Griegst’s characteristic “Havterrin” (Ocean tureen), which sold for 700% above the estimate with a hammer price of DKK 280,000. Among the jewellery, a rare fancy intense yellow diamond ring achieved the highest hammer price of DKK 550,000, while racing driver Michael Kristensen’s much-publicised Rolex Daytona watch sold for half a million kroner. |
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“It gives us great pleasure to be able to add Harald Giersing’s painting, “Balletscen”e (1920/21) to the National Gallery of Denmark’s (SMK) collection, making a major piece of Danish modernism available to the public. “Balletscene” is the last significant painting made during Giersing’s most experimental period from 1917-1921 and is a central work in his oeuvre. Both thematically, as a dance motif, and formally, with its simplified, colourful imagery, it is a significant expression of Giersing’s position in Danish art in the years around the First World War – a dimension lacking in SMK’s collection of Giersing works thus far. Giersing’s inspiration from Henri Matisse is clearly evident in this painting, and the timing of this new acquisition could not have been better, as we are opening the doors to the “Matisse – The Red Studio” exhibition.
Mikkel Bogh, Director of the National Gallery of Denmark.
What Did the Museums Buy?True to form, the museums were there in force in the saleroom, and this time, nine of the works up for auction ended up in a Danish museum. We have been granted permission to announce four of these museum acquisitions, and they include Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg’s “Papirius og hans moder” (Papirius and his mother) and Laurits Andersen Ring’s “Pyrus japonica og Æbletræ i Blomst” (Pyrus japonica and apple tree in blossom) from 1893, which were both acquired by Øregaard Museum. The Johannes Larsen Museum became the owner of Fritz Syberg’s “Jernbroerne ved Porta a Mare” (The iron bridges at Porta a Mare) from 1911. At the National Gallery of Denmark, they had their sights set on a formidable piece of classic Danish modernism in the form of one of Harald Giersing’s rare ballet scenes from the early 1920s. We would like to congratulate the museums on their purchases and look forward to seeing the works in their collections! |
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