Rare Hilma af Klint Abstract Painting Heads to Auction, First in Over 30 Years

A small abstract painting by the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint will go up for auction in Stockholm next month, a rare chance for collectors to buy a type of work that has almost never been offered for sale, the auction house Bukowskis announced on Tuesday.

The painting, ‘Ser III No. 5,’ is an oil and graphite work on canvas measuring about 38.5 by 29 centimeters and dated January 1920. Bukowskis has estimated it at 6 million to 8 million Swedish kronor, or roughly $600,000 to $800,000. It will be offered in a live sale on Nov. 18 and 19, after a public viewing from Nov. 12 to 17.

If it sells within that range, it would far surpass the artist’s current auction record. According to The Art Newspaper, that record is about $165,825, set in 2019 for ‘The Power of the Spleen,’ a 1931 watercolor on paper sold by Stockholms Auktionsverk.

The reason for the gap is supply. Af Klint, who lived from 1862 to 1944, created a large body of abstract work, but most of it is held by the Hilma af Klint Foundation, which was set up in 1972 by her nephew and heir, Erik af Klint, and tightly controls her abstract paintings. The foundation sold a small number of works in the early 1990s. This painting was among them: a private collector bought it in 1995, and it has stayed with the same family since.

Louise Wrede, head of Bukowskis’ art department, told The Art Newspaper that af Klint’s abstract paintings have remained almost entirely off the public market, and that only two of her abstract paintings, as distinct from works on paper, have sold at auction before, both more than three decades ago. Bukowskis described such works as exceptionally rare.

The painting has some exhibition history. It was included in ‘The Spiritual in Art,’ a 1986 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Art Newspaper reported.

The coming sale may offer the clearest test yet of what collectors will pay for her work when a genuine abstract canvas is available. With only two abstract paintings by af Klint sold at auction before, and both more than 30 years ago, there are almost no recent comparable sales to guide bidders, so the estimate is as much a judgment as a forecast, and the final price could land well above or below it.