Ingmar Bergman's office chair – going once, going twice

Provenance is one of the most central – and exciting – concepts in the auction world. It's a word that refers to the history of objects; with the help of a documented and thrilling story, the most mundane objects can gain a higher value. At best, it's a story that brings us closer to the people we are fascinated by.

In October's edition of Eclectic & Decorative, a Series 7 office chair by Arne Jacobsen will go under the hammer at Stockholms Auktionsverk, but of course, it's not just any chair – it's Ingmar Bergman's chair. A side from the fact that this chair stood in the guest room at Dämba – one of the film director's beloved properties on Fårö – it most likely also acted as a prop in the cult film "Scenes from a Marriage". The latter is a piece of provenance that has emerged while the chair has been in its current owner's possession, but it was perhaps not a big surprise as it is widely known that Bergman was in the habit of using private objects in his set designs. Parts of "Scenes from a Marriage" are also said to have been filmed at Dämba.

The chair's current owner succeeded in buying it at the famous Ingmar Bergman auction held in 2009. There, the office chair was sold for 45,000 SEK as part of Ingmar Bergman's estate. The catalog consisted of 337 items sold with a specially produced stamp and certificate of authenticity. Antiques expert Tom Österman was in charge of the auction.

"It was definitely one of the strangest auction experiences I have had in my career. Even things we brought from Fårö to use as props in the viewing were sold for high prices; a wicker wastebasket in rattan was auctioned off at 11,000 SEK just because it had been Ingmar Bergman's wastebasket. It was a spectacular display of the importance of provenance that we had not experienced in the Swedish auction world before", he says.

The auction also had an unusual outcome: the day before the remains were to go under the gavel, the Norwegian Hans Gude Gudensen appeared and said he wanted to buy the entire auction. Which he almost succeeded in doing when the day came. Tom Österman estimates that Gudensen eventually called home about 85 percent of the auction's items and then returned them to Bergman's properties on Fårö. This means that only 15 percent of the director's estate was sold to private buyers, including the office chair, which will now be auctioned at Stockholms Auktionsverk.

"This is a nice reunion and it's incredibly fun to see how this famous auction lives on, albeit in a much smaller selection than when it first went under the hammer. The fact that it is even possible to buy something from Bergman's estate again is fantastic! I hardly thought it would happen."

Ingmar Bergman's Series 7 office chair will go under the hammer in the Eclectic & Decorative auction on October 17 at Nybrogatan 32. The viewing is open from October 11–16.