Press release -
Drawings from Danish Art Collection Sold for DKK 12.6 million
The art collection that Bruun Rasmussen had under the hammer Wednesday afternoon in Copenhagen has been stored at the Danish manor of Engelholm for more than 150 years. The collection was originally established by the Danish lawyer Benjamin Wolff, who built a unique collection of more than 2,000 drawings – from the old masters of the 16th century to the Danish Golden Age in the first half of the 19th century.
"Benjamin Wolff has to be considered one of Denmark’s last great art collectors of the 19th century, and we have been working for a long time on researching, cataloguing and evaluating his large collection. Rarely, have we experienced such a degree of international interest as this collection has garnered, which was already evident when we presented the collection in Paris during the spring in connection with the Salon du Dessin. Here people came from all over the world and sat and studied the collection's works for hours. But the auction Wednesday afternoon surpassed all of our expectations!" says a happy Julie Arendse Voss, Head of the Department of Fine Art at Bruun Rasmussen.
The Auction's Highest Hammer Prices
- Ambroise Dubois: “The Departure of Chariclea”. Unsigned. Black chalk, drawing ink, wash and white highlights on paper. Sheet size 222 x 358 mm. Sold for DKK 4.2 million (€735,000 including buyer’s premium)
- Johan Zoffany: Claude Martin's Zoffany Album. A collection of 53 drawings. A few signed, dated and/or inscribed. Black chalk or "trois crayons". C. 410 x 280 mm. Sold for DKK 3.2 million (€560,000 including buyer’s premium).
- Louis Jean Desprez: Gustav III of Sweden visiting a church in Rome. Unsigned. Drawing ink and wash on paper. Sheet size 457 x 864 mm. Sold for DKK 750,000 (€131,000 including buyer’s premium).
- Bartholomeus Spranger, attributed to: Minerva holding a Goddess of Victory figurine while surrounded by the conquered. Sheet size 223 x 370 mm. Sold for DKK 650,000 (€114,000 including buyer’s premium).
Benjamin Wolff
The lawyer Benjamin Wolff (1790-1866) was a versatile gentleman, who with a broad vision and a highly developed sense of quality built one of the finest collections of drawings ever seen in Denmark. After having been posted for 12 years in India for the English trading agency Cruttenden, Mackillop & Co. he returned to Denmark, where he bought the Engelholm manor on the island of Zealand. Benjamin Wolff found the collection's works on his many trips abroad and at auctions in Copenhagen. Since his death in 1866, the collection has been in the family's ownership through five generations.
Topics
Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers is one of Scandinavia’s leading international auction houses, and one of Denmark’s oldest. It all started on 6 October 1948, when Arne Bruun Rasmussen conducted the first traditional auction in the saleroom at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen. Today, Jesper Bruun Rasmussen stands at the helm of the family-run business together with the third generation of the family, his son Frederik and daughter Alexa, and the company’s CEO Jakob Dupont.
In 2004, the first online auction was launched, and today the auction house has expanded to include departments in Copenhagen and Aarhus and representations in Sweden, Germany, England, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain, Italy, Thailand and the US. About 100,000 lots are put up for auction each year at the traditional auctions and daily online auctions. Here you can bid on everything from art, antiques, modern design and jewellery to books, coins, stamps, wine and weaponry.
