Art appreciation

"Aton", 1955, by Olle Baertling. Sold for 165 000 euros.

"Ksef", 1949, by Olle Baertling. Sold for 8 000 euros.

The Stockholm auction house (the world's oldest auction house) had their annual Swedish Modern Auction this past week. The Nilsson family was trying to bid for the less expensive pieces by Olle Baertling, but decided to drop out of the bidding war. "Ksef", above, was one of our objects of interest where Kim signed up for a paddle at the auction house. The starting price was 3 500 euros, but a tough bidding race soon pushed the price tag up 200 percent above the initial price. And as for "Aton" (top), and other more famous pieces (obviously inspired by Mondrian) by Baertling, it was simply out of our price range. But we still love his art!