Fontana and Rauschenberg to Lead Sotheby’s Auction of Hoglund Collection

Lucio Fontana Concetto Spaziale Attese (1965) is estimated to sell for $7.5–10.6 million. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby’s.

Works by artists like Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg and Jean Tinguely will go on the block at Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale in London on February 10. They are from the Hoglund collection, which was assembled by private collecctors in Sweden’s midcentury cultural heyday. Beginning tomorrow (January 21) in New York, Sotheby’s will preview these and other works from its upcoming London sales. The Hoglund collection also includes rare, important works by artists such as James Rosenquist and Claes Oldenburg, acquired from pre-eminent galleries such as Leo Castelli and Sonnabend or directly from the artists.

Anna-Stina Malmborg Hoglund and Gunnar Hoglund, both of whom were medical doctors, were known as voracious collectors in Sweden in the 1960s and ’70s, when that country was a major cultural hub. Postwar prosperity in Sweden contributed to a thriving art scene, further fueled by the Moderna Museet, founded in Stockholm in 1958 and headed by Pontus Hultén, who helped draw early attention to top-flight artists like Andy Warhol.

The Hoglunds began collecting as students but in 1958. When Picasso’s Guernica came to Sweden and was shown in an old military drill hall (while the Moderna Museet was being constructed), the couple’s passion for collecting was ignited.

The top lot is Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale (1965), which is estimated at $7.5–10 million (£5–7 million) and was acquired by the Hoglunds the year after it was created. Other highlights include a Rauschenberg Untitled (small oil on canvas #4) (1963) that is estimated at $1.2–1.8 million (£800,000–1.2 million), and John Chamberlain’s Swans-52 (1976), which is estimated at $529,000–681,000 (£350–450,000). Highlights will be on view at Sotheby’s York Avenue headquarters until Friday January 23.

John Chamberlain Swans-52 (1976) is expected to sell for $529,000–681,000. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby’s.