Well-off Chinese citizens have helped make 2007 a record-breaking year for Swedish auctioneers. The Stockholm Auction House sold antiquities, paintings, etc. worth 578 million SEK – a 39% growth since 2006 – and another of Sweden's leading auctioneers, Bukowski, brought home 634 million SEK, up from 621 million SEK the year before. Collectively 1.2 billion SEK brought in by just two of the Scandinavian country's several auction houses.

"20-25 years ago most of our customers belonged to an older, elite upper class. Today we're dealing with a much bigger and economically more diverse group of clients," says Carl-Gustaf Petersén, chief executive at the Stockholm Auction House. According to Mr. Petersén customers now fly in from all over the world, including a large number of rich Chinese. "Sometimes you almost have to look in an atlas to find out where some of our clients come from."

2007's massive sales bring the auctioneering market back to the level of the happy 1980s, and the level of demand indicates that 2008 could very easily become just as lucrative, as a broad public interest in quality and luxury appear to continue. And this even in the face of growing fears of a global financial recession. But the promises of leaner times have had one obvious effect on business for the Swedish auction houses: Less Americans come to bid on the often very expensive objects under the hammers. 

Full story in Swedish

News category: Sweden

Published on this site: May 23, 2008
Source:e24.se