The Commission on Export of Cultural Assets - Report for 1998
Contents:
Foreword:
Summary:
The Commission's Work in 1998
Advance examination of sale catalogues
Individual applications
EU regulation covering export of objects of cultural value
Owner anonymity in the case of privately owned objects of cultural value for which
an export licence has been refused
Press coverage of the Commission's work
The Wilhelm Bendz case
Should the Cultural Assets Commission be
abolished?
Will the Golden Age soon be "sold out"? Debate in the Danish
media during the spring of 1998.
Three export licences refused, two
granted.
Privately owned cultural assets for which export licences has been refused
THE
COMMISSIONS ACQUISITIONS IN 1998
Rococo Console by Mathias Ortmann
Wilhelm
Marstrand: Roman Citizens Gathered for Diversion in an Osteria.
Christen
Købke: Self-Portrait, 1836
Two
Rococo Mirrors from the first Christianborg Palace
Hans
Christian Andersen's manuscript for the play Hyldemoer (The Elder-Tree Mother)
1851
Embroidered
Bookbinding form c. 1633-39, probably from the workshop of the embroiderer Gert
Osserin
C.W.
Eckersberg: A rendezvous by the Park Wall. Daylight. 1838/40
Wilhelm
Hammershøi: Tree Trunks. Arresødal, Frederiksværk, Zealand. 1904
ACCOUNTS FOR 1998
Foreword:
1998 was a very turbulent year for the Danish art trade and consequently also for the Commission on Export of Cultural Assets. The focus was on nineteenth-century pictures painted during the so-called Golden Age, which attracted large numbers of buyers from abroad. Three of C.W. Eckersberg's paintings executed in Paris and Rome were sold to foreign buyers for prices never previously obtained at Danish auctions. The Commission granted export licence for all three, but refused licences in other instances, which contributed to the hitherto most intensive press coverage and debate about the Commission's work.
The Commission can only welcome such a debate provided it is conducted on the correct terms and with an understanding of the principles of the Commission's work and the conditions and limitations affecting the exercise of its authority as defined in the law covering the activities of the Commission on Export of Cultural Assets.
In the course of the year a special debate has taken place concerning the so-called "safe-deposit box cases", a term which covers the circumstance that objects of Danish cultural value for which an export licence has been refused after sale to a foreign buyer remain in Denmark in private custody because the buyer has not wished to accept the Commission's legally authorized offer to require them, which means that they cannot be taken out of the country by their owners either. How serious this problem is will emerge - for the first time - from this report.
The Commission's annual report is hereby presented to the public for the twelfth time. We hope it will provoke renewed debate on how we should ensure that the most important parts of our cultural heritage do not pass out of the country.
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Summary:
The Commission held ten meetings in 1998, one of which was extraordinary.
The Commission has made advance examinations of 63 catalogues, comprising 70,402 catalogue numbers covering antiques, paintings, books, letters, manuscripts and other items, and also considered 85 individual applications for export licences. In addition, the Commission has handled 25 applications for permission to export 240 items in accordance with EU regulation No. 3911 of 9 December 1992.
In 1998 the Commission acquired eight objects of cultural value.
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The Commission's Work in 1998
Advance examination of sale catalogues
As in previous years, a considerable part of the Commission’s work has been the advance examination of sale catalogues. Agreements have been entered into with seven auction houses covering advance examination of sale catalogues, a procedure also followed without formal agreements in co-operation with a few other auction houses and antiquarian booksellers. The work is done by members of the Commission and their respective institutions, namely Det kongelige Bibliotek (The Royal Library), Nationalmuseet (The National Museum), Rigsarkivet (The National Archives), Statens Museum for Kunst (The National Gallery of Art) and Statens Museumsnævn (The Danish Council of Museums) as well as a network consisting of the following associated institutions: Danmarks Natur- og Lægevidenskabelige Bibliotek (The National Library of Medicine and Science), Kunstakademiets Bibliotek (The Library of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts), Kunstindustrimuseet (The Museum of Decorative Arts), Musikhistorisk Museum (The Museum of Music History), Det Nationalhistoriske Museum på Frederiksborg Slot (The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Castle), Rosen-borgsamlingen (The Royal Danish Collections at Rosenborg Palace) and Tøjhusmuseet (The Royal Danish Arsenal Museum).
The procedure for advance examination of sale catalogues is laid down in §9 of the regulation. Before an auction is held, the Commission will undertake a preliminary examination of the sale catalogue and possibly an inspection of certain objects. The Commission will indicate which works of art or items of cultural value must be submitted for examination before an export licence can be granted.
If an application for an export licence is refused, the Cultural Assets Commission is obliged, in pursuance of §11 of the law, to submit an offer to buy the item corresponding to the hammer price, i.e. the buyer’s net purchase price plus the auctioneer’s expenses. Advance examination may additionally result in the Commission recommending the Minister for Cultural Affairs to reach a decision in accordance with the rules covering dispensation, cf. §2, sub-section 4. In 1997 the Commission specified that reservations made by the Commission may also apply to objects that subsequently will need to be submitted to the Minister for Cultural Affairs for approval. Conversely, catalogue numbers for which no reservation has been indicated may be taken out of the country after the auction without restriction.
In connection with advance examinations, the Cultural Assets Commission made reservations in respect of 18 objects and works of art. In one case the reservation was upheld, after which the object was acquired and handed over for permanent placement in Denmark, namely a drawing by C.W. Eckersberg (see below). Four items of cultural value (Stone Age Tools) were not sold at the auction in question. Two items of cultural value were sold to Danish collectors: the manuscript of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen and "The Green Portfolio", a collection of drawings of interiors from 1814. A Foreign buyer did not wish to sell his acquisition to the Commission but instead has deposited the object in question, a seventeenth-century tapestry table cover (see below) in Denmark. Two Nøstentangen glasses for which an export licence was refused in 1991 and which were thereafter deposited in Denmark, were acquired by the Commission and handed over to a Danish museum (see below). At the end of the year one application was still under consideration.
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Individual applications
As laid down in §11 of the law, in the event of an application for an export licence being refused the Cultural Assets Commission is obliged to make an offer to acquire the object for its market price. The financial value of the item is established after consultation with qualified experts. The Danish Auctioneers’ Association, the Danish Antiques Dealers’ Association, the Danish Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association and the Art and Antiques Dealers’ Association have been appointed as consultants.
During 1999 the Commission received 39 individual applications for export licences for objects of cultural value. An application for an export licence for a set of Baroque looking-glasses has not as yet been finalized. Export licences were granted in respect of all the other applications.
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EU regulation covering export of objects of cultural value
After the establishment of the single European market, as a result of which border controls between EU countries were generally discontinued, it has nevertheless been decided that the national laws of individual EU countries concerning the protection of cultural assets are still valid. The establishment of the single European market has thus in no way altered the Danish law covering cultural assets or the practices applicable under it. This law still regulates when and in which circumstances it may be decided to prohibit the removal from Denmark of objects of cultural value, whether to other EU countries or to countries outside the EU.
Furthermore, in order to strengthen the protection of national cultural interests, a common set of rules has been drawn up to prevent the illegal export of objects of cultural value beyond the EU’s common customs frontiers, which in accordance with the Council’s Regulation No. 3911 of 9 December 1992, came into force on 1 April 1993. As a result of these new rules covering countries outside the EU, an export licence must be obtained for certain objects of cultural value, in which case a special European application form must be used. In the same way as the Danish Cultural Assets Commission administers the Danish law, the Commission now also administers the common EU set of rules for the Danish region.
Applications for licences to export objects of cultural value to third-party countries must therefore also be submitted to the Commission, which will make decisions in respect of each individual application for an export licence. There are certain differences in the two sets of rules with regard to categories and financial value limits, and the EU regulation requires that an export licence be applied for in a number of instances where such a licence would not have been necessary according to the Danish law covering cultural assets. In this connection the Ministry for Cultural Affairs has already published a guide which among other things prescribes the areas covered by the new regulation.
During 1998 the Cultural Assets Commission has received 25 applications concerning the export of 269 objects in accordance with the EU regulation. In 23 cases the applications were submitted by museums requesting a temporary export licence in connection with exhibitions abroad. In one case an application was made for a permanent export licence and in another for making a protracted loan.
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Owner anonymity in the case of privately owned objects of cultural value for which an export licence has been refused
In its report for 1997 the Commission examined the question whether the buyer of an object of cultural value that has not been granted an export licence is entitled to remain anonymous as far as the Commission is concerned. In this connection an auction house has drawn attention to the last paragraph of this section (p. 9 of the report), which reads: "Under these circumstances it is an invariable demand on the part of the Commission that the owner's identity and address be known to the Commission if an export licence is applied for a person "authorized to do so by the owner". The owner has no right to refuse to comply with this demand. Information concerning the identity of an owner is naturally confidential and may not be passed on to a third party" and pointed out that this might result in a serious misunderstanding. The first sentence taken by itself, can be misunderstood to mean that identity must be declared when submitting the application. This is naturally incorrect.
A distinction must of course be made between the Commission's right to know the identity of the owner of an object of cultural value for which either an export licence has been refused, or, respectively, for which, an export licence has been granted after an application has been submitted, for example after a reservation has been made before an auction. It must be made quite clear that the law does not authorize the Commission to be told the identity of the owner in the latter case. Information as to who has acquired, or is in possession of an object of cultural value for which an export licence has been requested, does not therefore need to be disclosed until the Commission has reached its decision concerning refusal of a licence and passed it on to the owner's representative.
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Press coverage of the Commission's work
The Commission refused to grant an export licence for the picture known as "The WaagePetersen Family", painted by the Golden Age artist Wilhelm Bendz in 1830, which was sold as lot no. 109 at Bruun Rasmussen's auction no. 640 on 2. December 1997. The English buyer declined to accept the Commission's subsequent offer to acquire the item in accordance with § 11 of the law. This matter, together with the sale of a number of Golden Age paintings to foreign buyers at several auctions in the spring of 1998 - including a painting which fetched the highest price ever paid at a Danish auction and for which the Commission did not refuse an export licence - gave rise to a lively debate in the press, in some sections of which also concerning the way the Commission functions and the conditions governing its existence. In this connection the Commission issued two press releases and the Chairman wrote several informative articles.
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The Wilhelm Bendz case
The Copenhagen daily Politiken ran a front-page story on 22 January 1998 about the sale of Wilhelm Bendz's picture "The Waagepetersen Family" for DKK 2,600,000 to Artemis, the English art dealers, who according to the journalist had bought the painting with the aim of reselling it. A subsequent article under the headline "Tovtrækkeri om million-maleri" ("Tug of war about painting worth millions"), written by one of the newspapers seasoned auction reporters, contained incorrect information of various kinds about the Commission's refusal to grant an export licence and about the procedure involved in such a refusal - inaccuracies that are unfortunately by no means rare in coverage of the Commission's decisions in the Danish media. The article moreover included an accusation levelled by the owner of Artemis against the Commission for unwillingness to accept having to pay the buyer a profit when submitting, in accordance with § 11 of the law, an offer to acquire the picture after having refused to grant an export licence. Remarkably, Politiken declined to publish a disclaimer submitted by the Commission.
The mistakes concerned a number of factors in the Commission's procedure for refusing to grant an export licence, including the extent of the Commission's long-standing practice of making reservations in respect of individual lots prior to auctions. In the course of time, many journalists have misunderstood such reservations as implying refusal to grant an export licence, another misunderstanding, frequently encountered, is the notion that the Commission informs the auctioneer, prior to the auction, of its decision to refuse to grant an export licence. The procedure for refusal to grant an export licence in such cases is always as follows: in accordance with a special agreement, which may be reached with the auction house in question on the basis of departmental order No. 404 of 11. June 1987 concerning "protection of cultural assets in Denmark", § 9, the Cultural Assets Commission makes a prior examination of the sales catalogues published by these auction houses and reports, on the basis of this examination, whether or not the object listed in the catalogue may be freely exported from the country after the sale and/or whether the Commission makes a reservation concerning specifically indicated lots. If the items concerning which a reservation has been made are sold at the auction to a foreigner, the auction house is obliged to advice the buyer, after the object has been knocked down, that an application must be made to the Cultural Assets Commission for an export licence. The auction house thus does not know - contrary to the information given in Politiken - whether an export licence will subsequently be refused, for the simple reason that the Commission has seldom time to examine the cases prior to the auction, which in fact it does not aim to do either, as the Commission's task is solely to consider refusing to grant an export licence in the event of sale to foreigners, not to prevent the sale of cultural assets on the open market within the country's borders. This procedure is justified by, amongst other things, the fact that it is not the Commission's task to influence the establishment of a price in relation to the open market, nor should this marked and its participants be able to gamble on the possibility of an export licence being refused when making a bid at an auction. Therefore it is solely the price for which the object is sold - and not the buyer's wish to make a profit by reselling afterwards abroad - which, according to the law, must form the basis for the Cultural Assets Commission's offer to acquire the object in question.
The statement made in the article by the director of Artemis to the effect that he regarded is as "rather unfair that the Cultural Assets Commission will only pay the buyer the price for which the object was knocked down when making its offer to acquire the item" is based on the misunderstanding that a possible foreign buyer should be able to profit from a refusal to grant an export licence. He is only entitled to have his direct expenses covered, as he cannot know, for obvious reasons, whether an export licence will be refused, but it is irrelevant whether his purchase has been made for museological or commercial reasons.
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Should the Cultural Assets Commission be abolished?
The Wilhelm Bendz case no doubt prompted Michael Bjørn Nellemann, director of the Copenhagen auction house Museumsbygningen Kunstauktioner a/s, to write an article in Politiken on 27 February 1998 entitled "Abolish the Cultural Assets Commission" in which he claimed that the Commission "does not function as originally intended" and proposed that it should be abolished and replaced by a foundation controlled by the same persons who today constitute the Commission ex officio. The aim should be, amongst other things, to avoid any more "safe-deposit box" cases, but the idea behind this proposal is in reality very different from that behind the Cultural Assets Commission, namely a belief- no doubt widespread ant not entirely incorrect - that Danish museums cannot afford to bid for painting and other cultural assets in competition with buyers from abroad. "The museums must come out into the open and buy when the chance presents itself", declared Nellemann. This would be possible with the help of funds provided by a foundation of to which the auction houses should contribute, as a compensation for exemption from VAT on the sale of works of art at auction, and which should be able to contribute when approached and thus supplement the museums' "modest" funds available for purchases. In Nellemann's opinion, the funds available to the Cultural Assets Commission are much too restricted, and the Commission should be "a fund to be drawn upon, in collaboration with the museums, in order to buy cultural assets. A fund of this kind should naturally have much more money at its disposal than the present grant available to the Cultural Assets Commission". The money should be raised by legalizing contributions to a Cultural Assets Fund made by auctioneers in return for VAT-exemption.
The Commission replied to them on 25 March under the headline "strengthen the Cultural Assets Commission!". The Commission welcomed - as it still does - the fact that at long last a debate about the condition for the Commissions existence and work has been instigated. It is actually the first time since it was set up twelf years ago. However, the Commission's opinion is that the present cultural assets legislation, although by no means perfect view in all respects, is and has been most useful in the task of preserving specimens of Denmark's cultural heritage that are of importance to the nation, and that in general terms the present law has functioned in accordance with its intentions. There was nothing in the cases cited by Nellemann that could prompt any need to change the law as originally conceived for political reasons. He confused two issues: on the one hand, the very limited possibilities Danish Museums have of buying art in private ownership at auction in competition with affluent foreign buyers - which is quite correct - and, on the other hand, the purpose of the present legislation and the way the Cultural Assets Commission function. The real aim of the proposal - to secure Danish VAT-exemption for his own line of business and replace the Commission by a kitty in the form of a cultural assets fund to which auctioneers should then contribute - is, however, a political question that comes under the jurisdiction of the Danish Folketing.
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Will the Golden Age soon be "sold out"? Debate in the Danish media during the spring of 1998.
Headlines such as "Denmark's Top Price: Eckersberg Painting Sold for DKK 4,100,000 Yesterday" (Politiken,23 April 1998), "Record Danish Sale" (Berlingske Tidende 23 April 1998), "Golden Age Art Stranded" (Berlingske Tidende 24 April 1998), "Watchdog in Danish art" (JyllandsPosten 24 April 1998), "Painting Awaits Export Licence" (Politiken 24 April 1998), "Cultural Assets,. Little Money for buying Art" (Berlingske Tidende 25 April 1998), as well as numerous corresponding articles in daily newspapers all over the country and several reports on all radio and TV channels in April and May reflected what was probably the most extensive public debate on Danish art sales and the export of cultural assets ever to have taken place and at the same time drew attention to the decisions made by the Cultural Assets Commission. A particular stir was caused by the export licence granted for C.W. Eckersberg's famous painting Strollers beside the Aqueduc de la Vanne in Arceuil (Paris, 1812), valued at DKK 1,000,000 but at the auction No. 490 held by Kunsthallen (22-24 April 1998) sold to a Swiss buyer for DKK 4,100,000 excluding expenses, the highest price ever paid for a Danish painting.
The basis for the Commission's decision lies in the fact that four paintings are known from Eckersbergs period in Paris, three of which are in Danish Museums, two of them owned by the State. It could therefore not be claimed that the picture, although intrinsically important, was of a unique character, which is one of the Commissions principal criteria for refusing to grant an export licence, notwithstanding the high price level. However, the sale also reflected the strongly increasing foreign interest in Danish Golden Age art, which, as it was claimed, would soon be "sold out". Not unexpectedly, the debate was characterized by downright mistakes and misunderstanding, which prompted the Commission's Chairman to publish a long article in Weekendavisen on 11 May in which he gave an account of the Commission's working conditions and specific decisions and acquisitions in the course of the years. In the article, which will not be further cited here, the question was also raised as to why this interest in Danish Golden Age art has developed at this particular time.
There are no doubt several explanations. The high and steadily rising prices which Danish painting have fetched in recent years have obviously tempted many private owners to take advantage of the boom and realize their assets. The major cultural export ventures, including presentations of Danish art at big exhibitions abroad, especially Golden Age art, arranged by Danish museums in accordance with wishes expressed in political as well as cultural quarters, have made Danish art known abroad. For this reason, amongst others, Denmark has now, to a far greater extent than a generation ago, become an integral part not only of the international art-conscious public but also of the international market for trade in cultural assets. Several large foreign auction houses have set up branch offices in Denmark during the past decade, and they would very much like to have Danish art and cultural assets for export. As a result, there are now fewer paintings that come under the law in private Danish ownership than there were just a generation ago. Much has been exported in recent years, and for this reason, amongst others, "the Golden Age will (no doubt) soon be sold out" (JyllandsPosten 24 April 1998). There are thus both positive and negative aspects to this development - depending on how one looks at it.
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Three export licences refused, two granted.
In the autumn the situation was repeated. After prior examination of the catalogue of Kunsthallen's auction no. 493 on the theme of Denmark's Golden Age (9-11 September) the Commission made reservations in respect of six lots: a drawing and a painting by C.W. Eckersberg, a painting by Wilhelm Marstrand, two paintings by Vilhelm Hammershøi and a drawing by Théodore Rousseau. After the auction export licences were requested for five of the six lots. In this connection the Commission issued a detailed press release which is quoted here as it not only explains the Commission's final decisions but may also serve to give a succinct account of how the Commission works:
"The Cultural Assets Commission decided at a meeting held on 14 September to ban the export of lots nos. 2, 36 and 62 and to grant export licences in respect of lots nos. 20 and 70. Lot no. 2 is Eckersberg's drawing Rendezvous at the park Wall. Daylight (1838/40, price DKK 130,000), one of the studies for his renowned volume of prints on linear perspective from 1841, a pendant to which can be seen at Statens Museum for Kunst. Together, they demonstrate two intermediary stages in the creation of a major work of art. The drawing is exceptionally beautiful and well-preserved.
Lot no. 36 is Wilhelm Marstrand's painting Recumbent Female Nude (1833, price DKK 620,000) traced to private ownership in 1994. It was executed in the course of three posing sessions in 1833, the same year in which Eckersberg introduced life classes using nude female models in his private studio in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts; several less significant versions of the subject are also known. Wilhelm Marstrand's study is of exceptionally high quality and thus asserts itself as an independent work of art far superior to the usual classroom paintings; its pronounced sensual character makes it almost restrained and placid nude studies. It is thus both a parallel and a pendant to one of the Danish Golden Age's incontestably major works, Eckersberg's study Woman Standing in Front of a mirror (1841). Wilhelm Marstrand's nude study contributes to widen the concept and breadth of Eckersberg's school of life painting, which at this early stage would appear to have been unique in Europe.
Lot no. 62 is Vilhelm Hammershøi's painting Tree trunk. Arresødal, Frederiksværk, Zealand (1904, price DKK 625,000). Hammershøi's production of landscapes is very limited but no less significant than the other pictorial genres in which he asserted himself. He painted not only open, panoramic landscapes but also partially closed woodland scenes. Among the latter is a special group of pictures in which he has opened the forest and shown the trees in silhouette against the luminous sky. He varied this motif in several other paintings - otherwise he normally painted a misty or hazy background. The most brilliant in this category is this painting, which the arrangers of the recent Hammershøi exhibition at Ordrupgård, the Musée d'Orsay and the Guggenheim Museum searched for in vain. The painting is from 1904 and therefore comes without the limits of Act No. 322 of June 4 1986 covering the protection of cultural assets in Denmark. However, the Commission has today recommended, in accordance with § 2, subsection 4, that an export licence be refused.
The Cultural Assets Commission decided to permit the export of C.W. Eckersberg's painting View of the interior of the Colosseum. Rome(1815, lot no. 20, price DKK 2,600,000, which is one of two views of the Colosseum painted by him - the other is in Statens Museum for Kunst. Eckersberg's Rome paintings are far more numerous than his Paris ones and much better represented in Danish museums, and the Commission is of the opinion that the picture does not add new aspects compared with Eckersbergs painting already in State ownership."
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Privately owned cultural assets for which export licences has been refused
At the end of 1998, export licences had been refused for the following privately owned items in Denmark without this having resulted in their being acquired by the Cultural Assets Commission (the year indicates when the application for an export licence was refused):
- The Herimitage Cup (eighteenth century) 1992 (see Annual Report for 1992).
- C.W. Eckersberg’s Fruentimmer paa Gaden i Blæst (Woman in a Windy Street (1830), 1996.
- Carl Bloch’s portrait of Hans Christian Andersen (1869), 1997.
- Wilhelm Marstrand’s painting Recumbent Female Nude (1833), 1998.
- C.W. Eckersberg’s painting View Through a Door of Running Figures (1845), 1998.
The owners identities are known to the Commission, cf. Report for 1997, p. 8f.
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THE COMMISSIONS ACQUISITIONS IN 1998
Rococo Console by Mathias Ortmann
At Bruun Rasmussen's auction no. 637 of the so-called Flensborg collection in October 1997, a Rococo console (lot no. 476) was knocked down to a buyer from abroad for DKK 240,000. The Commission refused to grant a licence and subsequently acquired the console. The console was made by Matias Ortmann (C. 1698-1757), who was one of Denmark's leading Rococo cabinetmakers. It is executed in wood with delicate Rococo carving and cabriole legs typical of the period. The console has a marble top and there are still traces of the original gliding. It was undoubtedly intended to occupy a prominent place below an equally beautifully ornamented Rococo mirror. It is not known who bought the console from Ortmann, but during a period up to 1937 it was at Boller Manor near Horsens, Jutland. Today, about 25 pieces of furniture from Ortmann's workshop have been identified, the majority being chests of drawers. Like several of the examples of Ortmann's furniture that have been preserved, this console bears his label, a fine cobber-engraved work by Michael Keyl. In this instance the label is very well preserved.
Matias Ortmann took over the workshop started by his father, Niels Ortmann. He executed his masterpiece in 1725 and was appointed cabinetmaker to the Danish Court in 1751. From 1733 he lived at Gothersgade 41, Copenhagen, where he also had his shop. To have furniture in stock rather that await commissions was a relatively new practice at the time, and other innovations was the furniture lotteries he held in 1751 and 1752. In his list of lottery winnings from 1752 he mentions six consoles of the same type as the newly acquired console. Nevertheless, this is still the only known carved and gilded console made by Ortmann. The Cultural Assets Commission handed over the console to the National museum in 1998.
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Wilhelm Marstrand: Roman Citizens Gathered for Diversion in an Osteria.
At Kunsthallen's auction no. 490 (22-24 April 1998), lot no. 103, a painting by Wilhelm Marstrand entitled Roman Citizens gathered for Diversion in an Osteria signed "Rom 1839" (74x97 cm) was sold for DKK 900,000. This painting, together with the Festival of St. Antony in Rome, 1838 (privately owned) and October Festival Evening Outside the Walls of Rome, 1839 (Thorvaldsens Museum) is the unquestionably major work dating from Marstrands first visit to Italy. The picture clearly demonstrates the artist's skills in figure representation and composition as well as his deviation from the Eckersberg school and is also a central expression of the period's concept of Italy. In addition, it reveals a change in the way the Danes saw themselves, for the Danish artists represented, as well as the person who commissioned the picture, are shown as spectators - in black.
The Danish merchant Alfred Hage, father of the founder of the Nivaagaard Picture Gallery, was one of Marstrand's most important patrons. From the middle of the 1840s until his death, Marstrand managed to portray three generations of the Hage family. The close contact between the artist and the founder's family is also reflected in the circumstances that Marstrand is the artist best represented in the Nivaagaard Picture Gallery.
Prior to the sale, the Gallery managed to secure grants amounting to DKK 630,000 towards acquiring the picture. However, it was knocked down for DKK 900,000. The Commission refused to grant an export licence and subsequently acquired the painting, which was then made over to the Nivaagaard Collection. The grants already obtained were incorporated in the Commissions take-over price.
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Christen Købke: Self-Portrait, 1836
Lot no. 128 in Kunsthallen's auction No 490 (22-24 April 1998), a self-portrait by Christen Købke drawn in pencil. 1836, (120x95 mm) was sold for DKK 149,00.
The portrait is unknown in literature about the artist. It dates from Købke's active and splendid period around the mid-1830s. He very rarely depicted himself. The Department of Prints and Drawings in Statens Museum for Kunst has no portraits of him, whereas the Royal Collection of Paintings in the same museum has a painted selfportrait dating from 1833. The portrait gives a new and much more penetrating impression of the artist. It was made the same year as Wilhelm Marstrand's drawing of Købke, now in the Royal Collection. The difference between the two representations is both striking and thought-provoking: in contrast to Marstrand's explanatory, slightly idealized representation, Købke has looked at himself with a dubious, sceptical eye. The Danish art historian Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen has drawn attention to the fact that it was at precisely this time that Købke had experienced religious scruples which led to intervention by his friends and a decision to visit Italy.
The Commission therefore decided to refuse to grant an export licence. The drawing was acquired and made over to the Department of Prints and Drawings in Statens Museum for Kunst.
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Two Rococo Mirrors from the first Christiansborg Palace
In 1998 the Cultural Assets Commission refused to grant an export licence applied for by a Danish antiques dealer in respect of two mirrors which he had sold to a foreign buyer, originating from the first Christiansborg Palace.. Both are gilded Rococo mirrors and both have brand-marks : one a brand representing Christian VI and the remains of the brand "KSCB" for Københavns Slot Christiansborg (Copenhagen's Palace Christiansborg) and the other Christian VII's monogram and an "A" for Amalienborg (Palace's) furnishings. The mirrors are clearly a pair. The fact that they do not bear identical marks is of no significance in this connection. Not all furnishings were branded at the same time. The mirrors have been executed as asymmetrical pendants and probably belonged to a large series of mirrors that once adorned the chambers of the palace. It is not known when the mirrors were removed from the royal furnishing, not where they have been until the present day. The building Christiansborg Palace was started in 1733, and during the ensuing years Denmark's leading architects, Nicilai Eigtved and Laurids de Thurah, were responsible for the interiors, which represented the early Danish Rococo. When the palace burned down in 1794, only a very small part of its sumptuous furnishing was saved. The furniture as well as the entire interior decoration was in itself of a singularly high standard, but the palace furthermore took on far greater significance as it naturally set an example for the other Rococo interiors of the time. The few items of preserved furniture from Christiansborg Palace therefore occupy a most central position in Denmark's cultural heritage. The mirrors are both about 150 cm high and in very good condition, although the actual mirror glasses are secondary. The woodcarving is of exceptionally high quality and moreover a distinguished example of the best style of delicate and exuberant Rococo tracery. In addition, the greater part of the gilding is original. In the autumn of 1998 the Commission made over the mirrors to Nationalmuseet.
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Hans Christian Andersen's manuscript for the play Hyldemoer (The Elder-Tree Mother) 1851
At Bruun-Rasmussen's auction no. 646 on 21 April 1998 the original manuscript turned up of Hans Christian Andersen's famous play The Elder-Tree Mother, which was first performed at the Casino Theatre in Copenhagen in 1851. The manuscript was knocked down to a Danish antiquarian bookseller for DKK 260,000.
The Elder-Tree Mother is the title not only of one of Hans Christian Andersens most important fairy-tales (first published in a journal called Gæa in 1845) but also of a play subtitled A Fantasia in one Act. The play had its premiére at the Casino Theatre on 1 December 1851 and appeared in print the following day. It enjoyed considerable popular success and was performed in all 60 times up to 1872. The Andersen scholar Helge Topsøe-Jensen has described the play as Andersen's most beautiful dramatic work". even to this day many people can remember a song in it called "The old tree, oh let it stand". The manuscript, which is in the form of an ordinary exercise-book and was delivered to the Casino Theatre as such, contains a great many corrections and additions which may be judged to supply important information about its genesis. It is a bluish-black notebook consisting of 28 pages (fol. 1-28 recto and verso) plus one added page (fol. 29 recto); the format is 17 x 21 cm. The manuscript is not in particularly good condition.
The stamp on the title page of the manuscript reveals that it once belonged to the Casino Theatre. For many years it was thought to be lost, but turned up unexpectedly at an auction of the theatre's chattels, where it was found among the prompt books. It was subsequently bought by the Danish published Ejnar Munksgaard and later passed into the possession of his daughter.
Even though today the fairy-tale is probably better known and may be regarded as more important than the play, there is no doubt that the play itself is also of such significant interest to the history of both literature and the theatre that this completely corrected original manuscript by Denmark's greatest writer may be characterized as a national gem. It is probably the last major Andersen manuscript in private ownership. At the auction the manuscript was bought by a Danish antiquarian bookseller, who thereafter sold it to an American collector. For the reasons outlined above the Commission refused to grant an export licence and then acquired the manuscript. It was subsequently made over to the Royal Library, where it has been placed in the Manuscript Department and is now being restored. On account of the great public interest which the case aroused - including a wish to see the manuscript - the Royal Library immediately had it digitised in extenso. It can now be seen on the Manuscript Department's home page at the following address: <http://www.kb.dk./kb/dept/nbo/ha/hyldemor/index.htm>. The acquisition was only made possible at the particular moment with the help of a generous grant of DKK 250,000 from the Carlsberg Foundation.
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Embroidered Bookbinding form c. 1633-39, probably from the workshop of the embroiderer Gert Osserin
At the request of Kunstindustrimuseet, the Commission took over from a Danish antiquarian bookseller in the spring of 1998 a copy of Christian IV's bible, printed in Copenhagen in 1633, bound in the original embroidered binding of the same time. The binding is of green silk velvet with rich gold and silver embroidery as well as inserted medallions with silk embroidery in so-called shaded sewing or art embroidery. The latter term designates that the embroidery imitates painting with stitches placed as close together as brushstrokes on the painter's canvas and with the same delicate colour transitions, shade effects, etc. The embroidery is of a very high quality and can only have been executed by a professional embroiderer. The binding measures 39 x 28 cm.
Seeing that the binding encloses Christian IV's Bible and that it has always been in Danish ownership, there can hardly be any doubt that the craftsmanship is Danish. There was no need to commission work of this kind abroad either, for several professional embroiderers are known to have worked in Denmark during this period. According to the information received , the book stems from Rosendal Manor near Præstø, which since 1837 has been in the possession of Holck-Winterfeldt/Knuth-Winterfeldt family. The family near Winterfeldt is inscribed on the coved, and in the family the book has always been regarded as the bible. Beadwork was much in demand at the time, and consequently there were several workshops in Copenhagen, the most renowned being Gert Osserin's. This workshop, which existed for three generations (Gert Osserin the Elder, + 1633, Gert Osserin the Younger, + 1639, and Jacob Osserin, + 1644), is mentioned for the first time in 1613. Osserin is frequently named in Christian IV's correspondence and accounts.
The riding gear that once belonged to Prince Christian, the heir apparent, son of Christian IV, and the splendid chasuble from the Church of St. Nicolai in Copenhagen can be attributed to this workshop. The Danish conservator who restored the chasuble at the time has been able to confirm, from familiarity with the embroidery technique that the bookbinding is almost certainly from the same workshop. Stylistically, the binding may well be dated to the 1630s. The medallion on the front features a head-and-shoulders representation of Christ as ruler giving His blessing and holding in one hand a terrestrial globe surmounted by a cross. In the medallion on the reverse, Christ's monogram, IHS, is embroidered in gold thread and can be seen beneath a half celestial globe bearing the Hebrew sign for Jehovah: Below, a dove symbolizes the Holy Ghost. These inserted medallions in particular are characteristic features that are also to be seen on the chasuble.
The embroideries are very well preserved and the binding as a whole is unique in a Danish context. It must therefore be regarded as a major work in Danish embroidery, of which so little has been preserved. The Cultural Assets Commission made the Bible over to Kunstindustrimuseet, where restoration will be undertaken.
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C.W. Eckersberg: A rendezvous by the Park Wall. Daylight. 1838/40
Lot no. 2 in Kunsthallen's auction no. 493, a drawing by C.W. Eckersberg (1783-1853), A Rendezvous by the Park Wall. Daylight. 1838/40, in pencil, pen, brush and grey wash (185x135 mm) was knocked down for a price of DKK 130,000.
In continuation of his little book from 1833 Forsög til en Veiledning i Anvendelsen af Perspectivlæren for unge Malere Essay for a Guide in the Application of the Theory of Perspective for Young Painters), Eckersberg published eight years later a larger and more ambitious volume of prints entitles Linearperspectiven, anvendt paa Malerkunsten, en Række af perspectiviske Studier..., med tilhörende Forklaringer. 11 blade i folio med Text ( Linear Perspective, Applied to the Art of Painting, a series of Perspective Studies..., with corresponding explanations. 11 Folio Sheets with Text). The acquired drawing is an applied studie in linear perspective. The subject is a Copenhagen street with cobblestones, a pavement, people walking, a large tree and a monumental wall on which things and persons are outlined like projections on a screen. The low rays of the sun cause a street lamp to cast long, strange shadows on the surface of the wall.
Another sketch for the same etcing exists bur was never used. It shows a lamplighter with his ladder. This drawing, which belongs to Statens Museum for Kunst, is almost inseparably bound up with the acquired drawing as they are virtually pendants forming two aspects of the same thing. They show two intermediary stages in the creation of a work of art. Later they both undergo radical changes; the lamplighter is transformed into a painter on a ladder, and the young couple, who first met, are changed into an old man and an old woman who each go their separate ways. The drawing was acquired by the Cultural Assets Commission and subsequently made over to Statens Museum for Kunst, Department of Prints and Drawings.
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Wilhelm Hammershøi: Tree Trunks. Arresødal, Frederiksværk, Zealand. 1904
Lot no. 62 in Kunsthallen's auction no. 493, a painting by Vilhelm Hammershøi, Tree Trunks. Arresødal, Frederiksværk, Zealand (1904) was knocked down for a price of DKK 625,000.
As the painting did not fulfil the age condition (according to the Cultural Assets Act of 4 June 1986, § 2, subsection 1, it must be older than 100 years) the Commission recommended that the Minister of Culture, in accordance with § 2, subsection 4, should refuse to grant an export licence. The Minister of Culture decided that this particular clause was applicable to the painting in question, which was subsequently acquired by the Commission.
Vilhelm Hammershøi's production of landscapes is very limited, but no less significant than his work in other genres. He painted open, panoramic landscapes, but also closed woodland scenes. In the latter category is a special group of pictures in which he has "opened" the woods and shown the trees silhouetted against a pale sky in the background. He has varied the subject in several paintings, but among these Tree Trunks, Arresødal, Frederiksværk takes pride of place. The painting was made over to Statens Museum for Kunst.
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ACCOUNTS FOR 1998
Cumulatively the sum of DKK 542,100 has been transferred from 1997. The grant for 1998 amounted to DKK 3,000,000. In 1998 the Commission has therefore had DKK 3,828,500 at its disposal. Of this amount, DKK 1,138,826 has been spent. The unexpended portion, amounting to DKK 2,689,674, will be transferred to 1999.
The Cultural Assets Commission, 8 June 2000
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