Press release - 28 May 2025 09:25

Greta Garbo’s Letters, New Insights into the Andrée Polar Expeditions, and a Complete Set of Theodor de Bry’s Voyages at Stockholms Auktionsverk

Today, Stockholms Auktionsverk opens the viewing of The Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts Collection — an auction featuring exceptional works of historical and cultural significance. Among the highlights is a complete set of Theodor de Bry’s Voyages in Latin, a rare and highly sought-after work regarded as the foremost collection of travel accounts in early 17th-century Europe.

This complete set includes both the Grands Voyages (America) and the Petits Voyages (Africa and Asia) — a true rarity in the auction world and an extraordinary opportunity for collectors.

Theodor de Bry published the first volume in 1590 and completed five more before his death in 1598. His wife and sons continued the work, finishing the Grands Voyages and initiating the Petits Voyages, which were completed in 1634. De Bry’s richly illustrated accounts quickly gained popularity and profoundly shaped European perceptions of the Americas and the East Indies for an unforeseeable future.

“These works served as windows into unknown worlds, offering Europeans astonishing insights into life and events on continents they knew little about. De Bry wanted the public to understand what was happening across the Atlantic and what the colonizers were doing. To reach as wide an audience as possible, he focused on detailed, vivid illustrations,” says Katharina Fahlstedt, Head of the Department for Books, Maps & Manuscripts at Stockholms Auktionsverk.

Other standout items in the auction include previously unpublished handwritten manuscripts by Axel Stake, the hydrogen engineer responsible for filling the balloon Örnen during Salomon August Andrée’s ill-fated Arctic expedition. Also featured are ten handwritten letters by the iconic Swedish Hollywood star Greta Garbo, penned in Swedish during the 1940s and 1950s.

These intimate letters, written during the twilight of Garbo’s film career, reveal a star who, despite the great distance, was deeply engaged in the everyday life of her family back in Sweden—particularly her brother Sven Gustafsson and his wife Peg. The legendary actress, however, seems entirely unenthusiastic about a cinematic comeback:

(Translated from the Swedish original) "I’ve been away for so long that I just can’t imagine standing in front of a camera again,” she writes to her family.

When her loved ones considered moving to the United States, Garbo did little to romanticize her adopted homeland:

(Translated from the Swedish original) “I don’t know what advice to give you, as I’ve said so many times — I don’t even know what to do myself. If you want to move to New York, it’s probably best to rent an apartment first and see how you like it… As you know, it’s not so easy to live in the city, but millions do—it all works out if one is ‘zufrieden.’”

The viewing of The Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts Collection opens today at Stockholms Auktionsverk, Nybrogatan 32, and runs through the auction on 10 June.

Running concurrently is The Asian Fine Art Collection, which features exceptional highlights including a 15th-century Tibetan statuette of the Buddhist master Tsongkhapa, a delicate 14th-century Nepalese Tara (female Buddha) carved in wood, and two 18th-century underglaze blue and copper-red bowls decorated with the “The Eight Daoist Immortals” and bearing the seal mark of Emperor Qianlong.