Press release -
Work by H.M. Queen Margrethe II Sold for DKK 211,200 (including buyer’s premium)
There was great interest in a very special – not to mention royal – work of art at Bruun Rasmussen’s Live Auction of modern art on Tuesday evening, when a painting by H.M. Queen Margrethe sold for DKK 211,200 (including buyer’s premium).
All eyes were on the podium when a painting by H.M. Queen Margrethe went under the hammer at Bruun Rasmussen in Lyngby on Tuesday evening. The work was estimated at DKK 75,000–100,000 but exceeded the estimate, fetching a staggering hammer price of DKK 211,200 (including buyer’s premium).
Queen Margrethe’s artistic work has long been known to the public, and since the 1980s, many of Her Majesty’s works have been exhibited at a long list of exhibitions in Denmark, including at ARoS, ARKEN and Brandts Klædefabrik, as well as abroad.
According to Niels Boe-Hauggaard, Bruun Rasmussen’s Head of the Department of Modern Art, it is, however, extremely rare to see the queen’s paintings up for sale.
“The work by H.M. Queen Margrethe, which was up for auction this evening, testifies to her immense passion for art. Ít is extremely rare for us to see her works at auction, which may account for the immense interest shown by bidders. The Queen’s recent abdication has also without a doubt added an extra layer to the history of the painting,” explains Niels Boe-Hauggaard.
A Personal Gift for the Court Marshal
The painting is from 1988. It was a personal gift from H.M. Queen Margrethe to her then Court Marshal, Hans Sølvhøj (1919–1989), and it has been in the ownership of his family ever since.
“The work by HM Queen Margrethe II is from the year she began to exhibit officially. Her list of exhibitions is impressively long, but the works rarely come up for sale. So, there are only a few paintings, such as this one, which one has the opportunity to acquire, because they come directly from people who have had a close relationship with the queen,” says Niels Boe-Hauggaard.
According to Niels Boe-Hauggaard, this is a characteristic painting, executed in acrylic on canvas, with a motif arising from impressions of nature depicted as a poetic abstraction.
“The story of H.M. Queen Margrethe II and her oeuvre unfolds in a broad spectrum of areas, including the visual arts, scenography, découpage and costume design. The queen found her inspiration for the painting up for auction in the natural world, expressing it in a lyrical idiom. It is a highly personal artistic universe,” assesses Niels Boe-Hauggaard.
Love of Art
H.M. Queen Margrethe II has been fascinated by creative work since her childhood – an interest she has carried with her into her adult life. The queen’s artistic work became known to the public after Her Majesty designed the annual Christmas seal in 1970 and, at the end of the 1970s, produced prototypes of the illustrations for Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of The Rings under a pseudonym.
According to the website of the Royal Family, Queen Margrethe has been constantly active in a wide variety of artistic areas such as painting and watercolours, découpage, embroidery, church textiles and the design of scenography and costumes for ballets and films, among other things.
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"Going once, going twice. Sold to the lady in the front row". For more than 75 years, the auction house Bruun Rasmussen has sold art, antiques, design, jewellery, wristwatches and collector’s items such as wine, books, coins and stamps. After having been family-owned through three generations, we were bought in 2022 by the English auction house Bonhams, which was founded in England in 1793 and is today one of the world's leading auction houses. We are now part of an international network with a global reach, and we present and sell art where it makes the most sense in relation to potential buyers. This also means that through the network we offer more than 60 categories of items at our auctions.
