Press release -
A Triumphant Auction for Kirkeby and Alechinsky!
Tuesday's big auction at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen was dominated by two present-day heavyweights on the international art scene. Danish Per Kirkeby and Belgian Pierre Alechinsky surprised with several impressive hammer prices.
"We have every reason to be very pleased with today's auction, where especially the artwork by Per Kirkeby surprised in a positive way. Especially an early work from 1963 achieved a fine hammer price of DKK 410,000 (€ 72,000 including buyer’s premium), while a later painting from 1984 made it all the way to DKK 650,000 (€ 114,000 including buyer’s premium). The highest hammer price, however, was achieved by Pierre Alechinsky's work "Son p'tit bonhomme de chemin" from 1997, which was sold for DKK 900,000 (€ 157,000 including buyer’s premium)," says Niels Raben, head of the department of modern art at Bruun Rasmussen.
Alechinsky + Kirkeby
This autumn Pierre Alechinsky turns 90, and he is the last living member of the radical art group CoBrA, which Asger Jorn, Christian Dotremont and Karel Appel founded in 1948. Alechinsky began his artistic career in the art group at the age of 22 and has since gained a great degree of international acclaim for his lyrical abstractions.
Next year, Per Kirkeby can celebrate his 80th birthday during the autumn and he is without a doubt the greatest living Danish artist. His works have enjoyed a significant international interest in recent years, and the world record of DKK 1.6 million (€ 280,000 including buyer’s premium) for a work by the artist was achieved at a Bruun Rasmussen auction in December of 2015. We expect that the demand for the artist's work will only increase in the years to come.
.
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, 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.
