New Initiative Results in Million Kroner Hammer Prices at Bruun Rasmussen Fine Art Auctioneers

Both household names and brand new artists made their mark on the Contemporary Art scene during the auction house's Live Auction in Copenhagen on 3 and 4 March.

The major auction is part of Bruun Rasmussen's recent decision to place extra focus on Contemporary Art. It turned out to be a profitable gamble since the works of the auction ended up with a total hammer price of no less than DKK 3,289,000 (€ 572,300 including buyer’s premium).

"After conducting a Live Auction with a special focus on Contemporary Art for the first time, we can conclude that the response has been very satisfying. We have had the pleasure of offering works by a number of talented Danish and international contemporary artists that we do not usual have at our auctions, but which were well received by the bidders. With a total result of more than DKK 3 million, we can safely say that there is room for our new focus area on the auction market today – and we expect to increase this focus in the future," says Kasper Nielsen, Director of Valuation and Sales at Bruun Rasmussen.

New Danish Names

The two days of auctions in Copenhagen marked the auction debut for several artists. This includes, among others, the Danish alternative rock star turned painter Kasper Eistrup. The lead singer of the Danish band Kashmir has created a world of images that positions itself in an area of tension between abstraction and photo-realism – a style that today has created long waiting lists for the artist's works. This level of popularity was also evident at the auction, where the painting "Adagio for the Soul – Thank You Mr. Barber" (2015) surprised with an impressive hammer price of DKK 85,000 (€ 14,800 including buyer’s premium) against an estimate of DKK 50,000. The work "The Haunted Self" (2007) by the auction debutant Peter Linde Busk ended up with a fine hammer price of DKK 48,000 (€ 8,400 including buyer’s premium).

"Both Kasper Eistrup and Peter Linde Busk are currently enjoying a great deal of interest and respect at the galleries and museums. Both artists are sublime technicians within their respective fields. Art auctions have typically been the scene of the historical and well-established art, but the results from this auction show that the interest in the current and agenda-setting art is growing – also at our auction house. At the same time, we saw a strong demand for works of some of the most prominent names on the Danish Contemporary Art scene such as Michael Kvium, Anette Harboe Flensburg and Kathrine Ærtebjerg," says Niels Boe-Hauggaard, Specialist in Modern and Contemporary Art at Bruun Rasmussen.

The auction's highest hammer price came with works by Michael Kvium, who with "Stay Ahead of Your Time" (2018) and "Obey the Colors" (2017) achieved hammer prices of DKK 310,000 (€ 54,000 including buyer’s premium) and DKK 290,000 (€ 50,500 including buyer’s premium) respectively. With its red and blue surfaces, the latter work is a tribute to the artist Albert Mertz, whose favourites colours were precisely these and who was Kvium’s professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

Some of the other artists who cemented their place on the Contemporary Art scene at the auction include:

• Kathrine Ærtebjerg with the work "Awake and dreaming" (2010). Sold for: DKK 70,000 (€ 12,000 including buyer’s premium).
• Allan Otte with the work "Smadret" (Smashed) (2007). Sold for: DKK 130,000 (€ 23,000 including buyer’s premium).
• Anette Harboe Flensburg with the work "House of Night and Day" (2006). Sold for: DKK 205,000 (€ 36,000 including buyer’s premium).
• Martin Bigum with the work "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" (2008). Sold for: DKK 160,000 (€ 28,000 including buyer’s premium).
• Frederik Næblerød with the work "Spanish Guy" (2013). Sold for: DKK 28,000 (€ 5,000 including buyer’s premium).

More Contemporary Art up for Auction

If you failed to place any winning bids at this year's first Contemporary Art auction, you can look forward to 24 March, when Bruun Rasmussen will auction off even more thought-provoking, provocative, odd and unpredictable works by contemporary artists at a large-scale Online Auction. Here, works by many of the younger artists that you can experience at the leading galleries in Denmark today will be presented, including Frederik Næblerød, Line Busch, Maria Rubinke, Cathrine Raben Davidsen, Rose Eken and HuskMitNavn.

View the works from the auction