Art Nouveau cabinet almost discarded at the dump – sets world record

Standing nearly 2.3 meters tall and richly carved with female figures and organic forms, the cabinet attracted intense bidding from both Swedish and international buyers during The Design Sale. The masterpiece, which had previously come close to being thrown away, was one of the auction’s most talked-about lots and exceeded its estimate by more than 400% with a final price of 1,937,500 SEK.

“Kielland’s cabinet is an outstanding work of art and is now becoming the international benchmark in the market that it deserves to be. The fact that this remarkable treasure of high cultural and historic importance got its happy end is absolutely wonderful,” says Ulrika Ruding, Head of Design at Stockholms Auktionsverk.

Comparable cabinets are today mainly held in museum collections, including the National Museum in Oslo and the Jugend Museum in Ålesund, further underlining the work’s significance.

Nordic 20th-century design saw several strong results on Tuesday evening, including a new Swedish record for Uno Åhrén’s Swedish Grace armchair from around 1925, which achieved a final price of 612,500 SEK.