Rooseum selling modernist collection

According to an article in todays edition of Dagens Nyheter, the Rooseum in Malmö is planning to sell large part of it’s collection of Scandinavian modernists. Among the items for sale are works by Dick Bengtsson, Cecilia Edefalk, and Ola Billgren (in my opinion the best Scandinavian modernist painter of them all!).

The reason for selling the collection is, according to the museum management, that most of it hasn’t been shown to the public in over a decade. I don’t know which is the most upsetting: that they’re leaving loads of great art in the basement for all that time, or that they want to get rid of it?

The collection is worth 10-15 million Swedish kronors (app. $2.000.000), and even though other art museums are supposed to bid in the auction, most of the art is expected to end up in the hands of private collectors. Taking into consideration that it contains approximately 300 works – some of which represents one of the most interesting periods in Scandinavian art history – the projected price is a bargain.