Rare Hilma af Klint abstract heads to auction with SEK6m-8m estimate
Bukowskis’ sale of a 1920 painting will offer an unusual test of the market for an artist whose museum reputation has flourished largely beyond the auction room.
An abstract painting by Hilma af Klint will be offered at Bukowskis in Stockholm next month, providing collectors with an exceptionally rare opportunity to acquire work from the Swedish artist’s non-figurative oeuvre.
Ser III No. 5, dated 18 January 1920, carries an estimate of SEK6 million-8 million. Measuring 38.5 × 29cm, the oil and graphite on canvas will appear in the house’s Modern Art & Design sale, with the painting scheduled for 19 November.
According to Bukowskis, only two abstract paintings by af Klint have previously been sold at auction, both more than three decades ago. That distinction concerns paintings rather than works on paper. The present canvas was acquired by a private collector in 1995 following the Hilma af Klint Foundation’s disposal of a small number of works, and has remained within the same family.
Its appearance exposes an unusual gap between institutional recognition and market evidence. Most of af Klint’s abstract paintings are administered by her foundation, leaving remarkably few opportunities for collectors to compete for the work on which her reputation rests. Her auction history consequently offers a limited guide to the price this painting might achieve.
The canvas belongs to a concentrated period of geometric experimentation in early 1920. It also has a significant exhibition history: Ser III No. 5 was included in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985 in 1986, an exhibition that helped introduce af Klint’s work to an international audience.
Her subsequent rise has been extraordinary. The Guggenheim’s Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future attracted more than 600,000 visitors by April 2019, becoming the museum’s most visited exhibition at that time. Interest continues this autumn with Hilma af Klint: Artist and Visionary at the National Gallery of Ireland, which opened on 15 October and runs until 7 February 2027.
Yet neither visitor numbers nor scholarly reassessment translate automatically into an auction price. The sale will test demand for one particular, relatively small canvas, not establish a definitive value for an oeuvre whose greatest works rarely enter private circulation.
That is what makes the result worth watching. Af Klint’s reputation has already been transformed in museums. Stockholm will offer a rare indication of how collectors value an opportunity to own part of it.
Viewing: 12-17 November 2026. Modern Art & Design live auctions: 18-19 November, Bukowskis, Stockholm. Auction-house announcement
