Great Interest as the Gunnar Asplund Family Collection Went Under the Hammer
A Significant Collection – The Gunnar Asplund Family
After this autumn’s successful live auction for contemporary art and design, the focus shifted this week to the live auction for Modern Art & Design — the Nordic region's leading auction for modern art and design. As part of the auction, a significant private collection from the Gunnar Asplund family was showcased.
Bukowskis has a long tradition of selling notable collections of cultural and historical significance, and this autumn's edition of Modern Art & Design was no exception. Included in the auction was a collection spanning three generations of the Asplund family.
Gunnar Asplund is considered one of the most significant and leading architects of the interwar period, both in Sweden and internationally, and is one of the foremost representatives of 1920s Nordic Classicism, with the Skandia Theatre (1922) and Stockholm Public Library (1928) as prominent examples. He was also a pioneer of Functionalism, which he introduced to Sweden as the chief architect of the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930.
Items from the collection that were sold have been inherited within the Asplund family for three generations, from Gunnar to his son Hans, and finally to diplomat and UN ambassador Bo Asplund, the most recent owner. Bo Asplund also repurchased a number of chairs designed by his grandfather for the Stockholm Public Library, which were part of the auction.
Among the highlights of the collection was a unique cabinet, designed around 1920 for Gunnar and Gerda Asplund’s home at Mosebacke, which, after a lengthy bidding war, quadrupled its estimate and sold for a final price of 231 250 SEK. Another item that exceeded expectations was a plaster model of Carl Milles' “Angel of Death,” created for Asplund's Woodland Chapel at Skogskyrkogården, which sparked fierce bidding and fetched a final price of 572 000 SEK.
In addition to the collection from the Asplund family, a table, a set of chairs, and a ceiling fixture from Karlshamn Secondary School, designed by Gunnar Asplund and constructed between 1912-18, were also up for auction. The highest final price was achieved for the dining table, which sold for 218 750 SEK.
Highlights from the collection
Hammer price
185 000 SEK
Estimate
50 000 - 75 000 SEK
Hammer price
440 000 SEK
Estimate
60 000 - 80 000 SEK
Hammer price
155 000 SEK
Estimate
80 000 - 100 000 SEK
Hammer price
105 000 SEK
Estimate
60 000 - 80 000 SEK
Hammer price
105 000 SEK
Estimate
40 000 - 50 000 SEK
Contact our specialists ongoing consignment for upcoming auctions
Stockholm
Camilla Behrer
Head of Design/ Specialist Modern & Contemporary Decorative Art & Design
+46 (0)708 92 19 77
Stockholm
Eva Seeman
Chief Specialist Modern and Contemporary Decorative art and design
+46 (0)708 92 19 69
Stockholm
Jonatan Jahn
Head Specialist Contemporary and Modern Design
+46 (0)703 92 88 60
Stockholm
Karl Green
Specialist Modern and Contemporary Decorative Art & Design
+46 (0)700 07 94 25
Stockholm
Christopher Stålhandske
Head Specialist Carpets, textiles and Islamic works of art
+46 (0)708 19 12 58