A sofa and two chairs, designed by Finn Juhl and nicknamed "The Elephant Furniture", have just been sold for a record price of DKK 4.03 million / € 542,000 (including buyer’s premium).
Finn Juhl exhibited a sofa and two chairs in 1939. For 80 years, the design world believed it to have been lost, but now it has reappeared and will be sold at auction by Bruun Rasmussen in December. It'll hold the highest estimated price for a piece of 20th Century Danish design ever. A piece of Danish design history and cultural heritage is looking for a new home.
At Monday's design auction at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen, it was the iconic furniture pieces from well-known architects such as Flemming Lassen, Finn Juhl and Kaare Klint that achieved the highest prices. "The Tired Man" by Flemming Lassen was sold for DKK 610,000 (€107,000 including buyer’s premium).
Finn Juhl’s ”Chieftain Chair” exceeded expectations with an impressive hammer price of DKK 860,000 (€ 150,000 including buyer’s premium) as Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers of Fine Art concluded the final auction of the year in Bredgade, Copenhagen.
At the last international auction of the year in Copenhagen, we will be offering three of the most iconic Nordic furniture classics – Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Chair (1931–32), Finn Juhl’s Chieftain Chair (1949) and Jonas Bohlin’s Concrete Chair (1980).
At the upcoming international auction at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen we have the pleasure of presenting a number of the models that Finn Juhl used in 1951 for Interior 52 at Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim (Norway’s National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design).