A painting by Denmark’s former monarch, Queen Margrethe II, is going up for auction.
Works by the 83-year-old queen, who is a prolific artist, have featured in various exhibitions, but the opportunity to buy one of her paintings is rare, according to a statement from Bruun Rasmussen auction house published Tuesday.
“You now have the opportunity to acquire a very special – and not least royal – work of art,” said the auction house, which has set an estimate of 75,000–100,000 Danish kroner ($11,000-$15,000).
The painting dates from 1988, the year that Margrethe started to exhibit her art officially. It was given to the then Court Marshal, Hans Sølvhøj (1919–1989), and remained in his family since.
“The queen found her inspiration for the painting up for auction in the natural world, expressing it in a lyrical idiom. It is a highly personal artistic universe,” Niels Boe-Hauggaard, a specialist in Modern & Contemporary Art at Bruun Rasmussen, said in the statement.
“We are very much looking forward to offering this work by H.M. Queen Margrethe II, which testifies to her immense passion for and prolificacy within art and creative work,” he added.
“Her great activity in the field has long been known to the public, but it is extremely rare for us to see her works at auction.”
While Margrethe has exhibited at many well-known galleries in Denmark and abroad, only those works that have “come directly from people who have had a close relationship with the queen” have been made available to buy, Boe-Hauggaard said.
This particular painting will go under the hammer in Copenhagen at the beginning of March.
“Queen Margrethe has been fascinated with drawing since her childhood and has maintained the interest into her adult life, in which creative work has become a prioritized activity with a fixed day of the week in a busy calendar,” according to the website of Denmark’s royal house, the Kongehuset.
Her work first came to public attention when she designed the annual Christmas seal in 1970, according to the royal house.
“Since then, Queen Margrethe has been constantly active in a wide variety of artistic areas such as painting and watercolors, découpage clipping, embroidery, church textiles, and design of scenography and costumes for ballet performances and film, among other things,” it adds.
At the beginning of January, Margrethe announced that she would abdicate the throne after a reign of 52 years – a move that took Danes by surprise.
On January 14, with thousands gathered in Copenhagen to witness the start of a new era, she handed the crown to her elder son, Frederik, who took the throne as King Frederik X.
