Norway’s National Museum has emerged as the buyer of a rare and spectacular landscape painting by Norwegian artist Hans Fredrik Gude. The price set a new record at an auction earlier this week.
“We are incredibly glad that we bought this painting,” Karin Hindsbo, director of the National Museum, told state broadcaster NRK Friday night. The painting, a fjord and mountain landscape from the Balestrand area, has been in private ownership since its completion in 1848 and was sold at auction Tuesday evening for NOK 4.1 million (nearly USD 500,000).
The major auction of Norwegian art conducted by the venerable auctioneering firm Blomkvist fetched high prices and set several records. The Gude painting had been relatively unknown and out of the public eye for 173 years, but can now be seen by the public when the new National Museum finally opens next year.
newsinenglish.no staff
