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 SEK 231,250. 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 SEK 572,000.
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 SEK 218,750.
Highlights from the collection
Vasarahinta
185 000 SEK
Lähtöhinta
50 000 - 75 000 SEK
Vasarahinta
440 000 SEK
Lähtöhinta
60 000 - 80 000 SEK
Vasarahinta
155 000 SEK
Lähtöhinta
80 000 - 100 000 SEK
Vasarahinta
105 000 SEK
Lähtöhinta
60 000 - 80 000 SEK
Vasarahinta
105 000 SEK
Lähtöhinta
40 000 - 50 000 SEK
Contact our specialists ongoing consignment for upcoming auctions
Tukholma
Camilla Behrer
Johtaja, Design and Moderni taidekäsityö
+46 (0)708 92 19 77
Tukholma
Eva Seeman
Johtava asiantuntija, moderni ja nykyaikainen taidekäsityö & design
+46 (0)708 92 19 69
Tukholma
Jonatan Jahn
Vastaava asiantuntija, nykyaikainen ja moderni design
+46 (0)703 92 88 60
Tukholma
Karl Green
Specialist Modern an Contemporary Decorative Art & Design
+46 (0)700 07 94 25
Tukholma
Christopher Stålhandske
Asiantuntija matot, tekstiilit, islamilainen taidekäsityö
+46 (0)708 19 12 58