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.
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Year: 1674
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Source: https://www.auktionsverket.com/en/our-history/
History of Auctioneering
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Source: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-expensive-guitar-sold-at-auction
A wall calendar featuring sketches of costume designs for characters from Alice in Wonderland was sold to an anonymous bidder for £36,000 (then US$57,848; €39,804) as part of a fundraising auction held in aid of the Muir Maxwell Trust and the Fettes Foundation (both UK). The auction took place at The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party held on The Queen’s Lawn at Fettes College, Edinburgh, UK on 3 July 2011.
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Source: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/82585-most-expensive-calendar-sold-at-auction
The most expensive tweet sold at auction is a tweet originally posted by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (USA), which sold as a nonfungible token (NFT) for $2,915,835 (£2,101,470 / €2,449,150), on 21 March 2021.
The tweet – which holds the Guinness World Records title of First tweet – was first posted in 21 March 2006 and simply reads “just setting up my twttr”. Proceeds of the auction were donated to charity.
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A baseball was sold at Guernsey’s auction house, New York City, USA for $3,054,000 (£1,874,655) including commission, to Todd McFarlane on 12 January 1999. The ball was the one that was hit by Mark McGwire of the St Louis Cardinals for his 70th and final home run in his record-setting season in 1998.
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The most expensive banknote sold at auction is an 1890 United States $1,000 Treasury Note, which sold for $3.29 million (£2.6 million) at Heritage Auctions (USA) on 10 January 2014.
The note is known as the “Grand Watermelon” note, due to the three prominent zeros on the reverse that resemble the fruit. The notes are extremely rare, and only three specimens are available to collectors.
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An armchair made by Irish-born designer Eileen Gray around 1917 to 1919 and belonging to Yves Saint Laurent (France), sold at auction for €21.9 million (then £19.4 million; US$28 million). The buyer, Cheska Vallois (France), was the same dealer who originally sold the chair to the French designer in the 1970s. The auction took place at Christie’s in Paris, France, on 24-26 February 2009.
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The most expensive camera sold at auction is a prototype Leica 35mm film camera, which was sold to a private collector from Asia for €2.40 million (£2.13 million; $2.95 million), at the WestLicht Photographica auction in Vienna, Austria, on 10 March 2018. The early model, known as the Leica 0-series No.122, was one of just 25 produced for testing in 1923 – two years before the first Leica camera went on sale to the public. The starting price was €400,000 (£356,000; $492,000).
The previous record holder was another Leica 0-series No.122 camera, which sold at the same auction house on 12 May 2012 for €2.16 million (£1.73 million; $2.8 million).
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The most expensive flag sold at auction is an American Revolutionary War Battleflag (1776–1779), which went to an anonymous buyer on 14 June 2006 for $12,336,000 (£6,707,264), including buyer’s premium, at Sotheby’s in New York, USA. The regimental standard of the 2nd Continental Light Dragoons was captured by British cavalry officer, Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton at Pound Ridge, Westchester County, New York, USA, on 2 July 1779 and subsequently shipped to England, where it remained until it was put up for auction by one of his descendants. It is the earliest surviving American flag of any kind with a field of 13 red and white stripes.
The flag was one of four rare Revolutionary War battle flags sold at the auction: three other flags, from a Virginia regiment, thought to have been captured at the Battle of Waxhaws, near the border of North and South Carolina, on 29 May 1780, sold for $5.05 million.
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The most expensive hat sold at auction is a black felt bicorn hat that belonged to the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821). It sold for €1,932,000 (£1,687,119; $2,114,284) including premium at the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, France, on 19 November 2023.
The hat, which was estimated to sell at €600,000-800,000, was last owned by businessman Jean-Louis Noisiez, who died in 2022, and has now been purchased by an anonymous buyer. The final hammer price was likely higher than expected as a result of the pending release of a biopic film about the French emperor, directed by Ridley Scott, premiering in November 2023.
According to Osenat, the former French emperor owned 120 hats, yet only about 16 are known to still exist today. This particular bicorn was used by Bonaparte in the middle of the Empire, around the 1806–15 period.
Previously, the most expensive hat sold at auction was another formerly owned by Napoleon. It sold for €1,884,000 (£1,498,496; $2,348,594) on 15 November 2014, also at the Osenat auction house. It was sold by the Grimaldi family, the rulers of the Principality of Monaco, and purchased by an anonymous collector from South Korea.
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By 9 May1997, works of art by Pablo Picasso (Spain) had been sold at auction no fewer than 3,579 times. The total value of these sales has been £668,817,963.
Picasso was an artistic pioneer with a hand in every art movement of the century.
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