The Bidding by e-mail, telephone and inside the packed auction room at Bukowski's began at 3 PM on Monday and after the first item, a 17th century painting by an unknown artist went for nearly 8 times the asking price, it was clear that people; movie buffs , collectors and Ingmar Bergman fans were prepared to pay whatever it took to get a piece of the legendary film and theatre director's 337 belongings, even it was paying something in the region of 29, 000 swedishn kronor, that's 4,000 dollars, for a small cardboard devil worth just a few hundred crowns if owned by anyone else.
Under the hammer, a variety of mementoes, film memorabilia, furniture and art, all going well past the asking price, and attracting huge interest.
Prices varied across the board. From the cheapest item sold..a boguslawski medal worth 355 dollars, to the most expensive, at 147 000 dollars, a wooden miniature replica of Stockholm's famous dramaten theatre which the director received in 1993. Bergamn himself, whom dirceted many plays there, is seen sitting in his favourite place high up on a balcony row.
The auction went past midnight into the early hours with Bergman's numerous film and theatre awards the last to go under the hammer. The final sum raised - 18 million swedish crowns, that's around 2 and a half million dollars, all money going to Bergman's extended family.
It's not the last auction to involved the late director who died in 2007 at the age of 89.Christies of London are auctioning off his house in Fårö which housed the possessions going under the hammer on monday. That auction though will be strictly the preserve of millionaires.
