James O’Brien Obituary

Orchard with Cypresses (1888), by the Dutch Expressionist painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–90), sold for $117,180,000 (£101,809,382) – including buyer’s premium – at Christie’s in New York City, USA, on 9 November 2022 to an anonymous buyer. The painting was one of a series of 14 canvases depicting blossoming trees, which were created by Van Gogh a few months after his arrival in Arles, southern France.

Orchard with Cypresses was sold as part of a group of paintings and sculptures that had belonged to the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Their joint sale realized $1.5 billion (£1.3 billion) in early November 2022. Proceeds from the sale went to charities favoured by Allen.

The most expensive movie prop is Robby the Robot, which sold for $5,375,000 (£4,062,120), including premium, at Bonhams New York on 21 November 2017.

Robby the Robot was sold as a complete system complete with accessories. The lot included the robot, an alternative head, the robot’s control console and the motorized ‘jeep’ the robot used on screen during the filming of the 1956 science-fiction classic Forbidden Planet.

Robby the Robot was built at the MGM studios prop workshop based on a concept drawn up by production designer Arnold Gillespie, art director Arthur Lonergan, and writer Irving Block. The robot was, at the time of its construction, one of the most expensive props ever made – costing over $100,000 to make (the equivalent of more than $1 million in 2018). To recoup the studio’s huge investment in the robot, it was used not only in Forbidden Planet but also made appearance in The Invisible Boy (1957) and dozens of TV shows (including four episodes of the The Twilight Zone).

The greatest amount a single-page musical manuscript has been sold for is £;1,326,650 million ($1,932,398), paid by an anonymous telephone bidder at Sotheby’s, London, UK on 17 May 2002 for the earliest draft of Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) Ninth Symphony.

The highest price for a deck of playing cards is £99,000 ($143,104) paid by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA at Sotheby’s, London, UK on 6 December 1983. The cards, dating from c. 1470-85, constituted the oldest known complete hand-painted set.

Stockholms Auktionsverk was founded in 1674, on the initiative of Baron Claes Rålamb, who was Governor of Stockholm at that time. As such, we are the oldest auction house in the world still operating today. We have sold items in styles now known as Baroque, Rococo and Gustavian while they were contemporary. Our list of distinguished customers over the centuries features names such as King Karl XI, King Gustav III, our Swedish national bard Carl Michael Bellman, and authors August Strindberg and Selma Lagerlöf.

Today, Stockholms Auktionsverk is a leading Nordic marketplace for art, crafts, and antiques from a variety of ages and epochs. Stockholms Auktionsverk has auction houses in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Helsingborg, as well is in Finland and Germany.

Stockholms Auktionsverk is a “stock exchange trading floor” for Swedish and international art, antiques, and design. Our business is built on confidence, knowledge, tradition, and personal contacts. Our staff are highly educated experts in a range of specialist areas, different cultures and historical periods in art, applied art and antiques. Since May 2021, Stockholms Auktionsverk is owned by Auctionet. Our network of Swedish and international customers, dealers, and collectors is large and constantly growing.

On February 27, Stockholms Auktionsverk celebrates its 350th anniversary, marking a historic milestone for the world’s oldest auction house. Founded on the initiative of Baron Claes Rålamb – governor-general of Stockholm and a pioneer in the auction world – who issued the founding auction chamber ordinance in 1674.

“Over the years, Stockholms Auktionsverk has been a staple marketplace, but also a meeting place for Stockholmers and, in recent years, for the rest of the world as well. With us, items have changed hands for 350 years; someone’s unwanted possessions become someone else’s beloved treasures. We have auctioned off some of the country’s finest art treasures, which not only represent significant monetary value but are also highly valued on a cultural-historical level. Works that manage to capture the Swedish soul, art that is an honor to be around but also constitute important work for us to preserve for future generations,” says Victoria Svederberg, head of the art department at Stockholms Auktionsverk.

For three and a half centuries, Stockholms Auktionsverk has been a focal point for extraordinary artworks and antiques – each a small part of history. When Anders Zorn’s “Omnibus” was sold to the National Museum for 1.2 million SEK in 1981, it was the most expensive Swedish painting ever auctioned. However, the most famous painting ever sold at Stockholms Auktionsverk is Rembrandt’s “Kökspigan” from 1651. During the 18th century, it was owned by Eva Bielke, but after her passing it was sold at Stockholms Auktionsverk in 1779, along with several other artworks, to a new renowned owner – King Gustav III, who received the royal privilege to choose first from the private art collection auctioned at Stockholms Auktionsverk in 1779. In 1866, “Kökspigan” was transferred to the National Museum’s collections, where it still resides.

Behind the doors at Nybrogatan 32 stands the clock that has signaled auctions at Stockholms Auktionsverk for 310 years. From 1727, the bell was used to summon the public to auctions twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. After 1858, the number of days doubled, and during the peak seasons – now referred to as the spring and fall auction seasons – auctions could take up to six days of the week. The auction chamber was state-run and operated between 1674 and 1790 from Själagårdsgatan 19 in the Old Town. In 1790, it moved to the Polus house on Myntgatan and in 1836, further to Birger Jarls torg on Riddarholmen, where it remained for over a century. In 1949, it moved to the Bonnier house on Torsgatan, ten years later to Norrtullsgatan 6, and in 1977 to Stockholm city and Beridarebansgatan in the premises under the Gallerian. In 2002, it moved to its current location at Nybrogatan 32.

Established in Vienna in 1707 by Emperor Joseph I. Initially focused on selling royal treasures and court possessions, Dorotheum has since expanded its offerings to include fine art, jewelry, furniture, and collectibles. The auction house is renowned for its prestigious sales of Old Masters, Austrian and international art, and decorative arts. Dorotheum operates through a network of branches across Europe and conducts auctions both in-person and online. One of its most notable sales includes the auction of Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Gertrud Loew” in 2017. Dorotheum’s headquarters in Vienna is one of the largest auction houses in Europe, with over 600 auctions held annually.

On December 17, 1733, Stockholms Auktionsverk itself was sold at auction. The highest bid was placed by Prime Minister Lukas Lutkens, with an annual rent of 4,502 silver dalers. The agreement between the state and the city of Stockholm included a provision prohibiting others from holding auctions in Stockholm; all private auctions had to be reported to the city’s auction chamber, which could issue permits and ensure their personnel were present to conduct the auction. Those who violated this were fined 100 silver dalers – half of which went to the informant as a reward and the other half to the city’s poor. A customary commission was also paid to the auction chamber. This auction monopoly was only abolished in 1972, and until then, all auctions within the city limits were conducted by Stockholms Auktionsverk.

Founded in 1744, Sotheby’s is the oldest and largest internationally recognised firm of fine art auctioneers in the world. It has a global network of 80 offices and the company’s annual worldwide sales turnover is currently in excess of $7 billion.

Sotheby’s founder, Samuel Baker, was an entrepreneur, occasional publisher and successful bookseller who held his first auction under his own name on 11 March 1744. The dispersal of “several Hundred scarce and valuable Books in all branches of Polite Literature” from the library of Sir John Stanley fetched a grand total of £826.

Baker concocted enticing advertising campaigns and produced authoritative catalogues. He was, as one colleague noted, a “joyous fellow” with a fondness for plum-coloured coats.

For more than a century, Baker and his successors were to handle all of the great libraries sold at auction, including those of the Earls of Sunderland, Hopetoun and Pembroke and the Dukes of Devonshire, York and Buckingham. Following Napoleon’s death, Sotheby’s sold the books he had taken into exile to St Helena – the final lot was the Emperor’s tortoiseshell-and-gold walking stick.

In 1767 Baker went into partnership with George Leigh. Leigh was a natural auctioneer with an actor’s sense of timing. His ivory hammer is still on display at Sotheby’s London galleries. On Baker’s death in 1778, his estate was divided between Leigh and Baker’s nephew John Sotheby, whose family remained involved in the business for more than 80 years. During that time the company extended its role to take in the sale of prints, coins, medals and antiquities.

In 1842 John Wilkinson, the firm’s senior accountant, became a partner and when the last of the Sotheby family died in 1861, Wilkinson took over as head of the business. Three years later he promoted Edward Grose Hodge, and restyled the company Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, the name it carried until 1924.

James Christie, a Scotland-born UK auctioneer, was the one to found Christie’s auction house on December 5th, 1766, in London, England. It started as a studio for prominent artists’ auction sales and evolved into something much bigger. Namely, after handling a number of important art auctions, such as the one where sir Robert Walpole’s painting collections were sold to Catherine the Great of Russia in 1778, Christie’s quickly established itself as a renowned auction house. That led to capitalizing on London’s newfound prominence as a major international art trade hub during the French Revolution.

Following his father’s death in 1803, James Christie II, a specialist in ancient Greek and Italian art, took over the business. It stayed as a private company until 1973 when it went public, and then it was bought by Francois Pinault, a French businessman and a mega art collector, in 1999.

In the late 1950s, they expanded from London — first was a new office in Rome in 1958; then, one in Geneva (1968) and one in Tokyo (1969). Nowadays, they have offices all over the world — from Singapore to the USA.

Christie’s is a world-leading art and luxury business with a physical presence in 46 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, and flagship international sales hubs in New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris and Geneva.

Renowned and trusted for our expert live and online-only auctions, as well as bespoke Private Sales, Christie’s unparalleled network of specialists offers our clients a full portfolio of global services, including art appraisal, art financing, international real estate and education. Christie’s auctions span more than 80 art and luxury categories, at price points ranging from $500 to over $100 million.