Ingmar Bergman’s Belongings Sold at Auction
In Stockholm, an auction of personal belongings from the estate of the great director Ingmar Bergman has just ended. The items ranged from parts of his daily life—his writing desk and wastepaper basket—to the chess set used in The Seventh Seal.
Bukowskis, the Swedish auction house operating the event, posted on Twitter twenty-two hours ago:
"The Ingmar Bergman auction is now over and 337 very special lots have new lucky owners. Thank you all."
The 337 lots for sale were auctioned for a total of 18 million Swedish kronor (approximately $2.6 million). The famous Irving Penn portrait, above, fetched 520,000 SEK ($74,200), while the Golden Globe statuette the filmmaker won for Autumn Sonata brought 48,000 SEK ($6,800). The most prized items were the Seventh Seal chess set and a wooden model of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. Each sold for 1 million SEK (about $140,000).
The 1/50 scale wooden model of the Royal Dramatic Theatre lights up and includes a tiny Bergman figurine seated on the balcony:
Other items included an 1870 magic lantern that looks very similar to the one in Fanny and Alexander and its accompanying set of ten glass plates for projection (the two lots sold for a total of $130,000):
A paper jumping jack given to Bergman by his grandson ($4,100):
A photograph by John Bryson of Bergman on the set of Jaws ($7,400):
A 1920s Marland film projector ($17,800):
And there seemed to be plenty of bidders eager to ensure that their own worst ideas end up in the same place that Bergman’s did. His wastepaper basket sold for $1,500:
