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ROYAL FAMILY

Queen Margrethe wins Denmark’s best costume ‘Oscar’

Denmark's 83-year-old Queen Margrethe, who abdicated in January in favour of her son Frederik, on Saturday won Denmark's equivalent of an Oscar for best costume designer.

Published: 4 February 2024 09:24 CET
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark looks on as she inaugurates her works at the Henri Martin museum in Cahors, southern France
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark looks on as she inaugurates her works at the Henri Martin museum in Cahors, southern France, on August 17, 2022. The queen won Denmark's equivalent of an Oscar for best costume designer on Saturday. (Photo by Valentine CHAPUIS / AFP)

The royal was honoured with a Robert Award for her work on the Netflix film “Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction”, an adaptation of a book by Danish author Karen Blixen, best known for her memoir “Out of Africa”, and directed by Bille August, one of the Scandinavian country’s most acclaimed filmmakers.

The ex-monarch, who cited health issues when she announced her shock abdication in her annual New Year’s Eve address, was not present at Saturday’s award ceremony in Copenhagen.

READ ALSO: IN PICTURES: Huge crowds cheer in Copenhagen as Frederik X takes throne

The film’s producer, Marcella Dichmann, accepted the prize on her behalf.

Alongside her royal duties, the queen has made a name for herself as an accomplished artist over the years.

She is a painter and illustrator, and has worked as a costume and set designer with the Royal Danish Ballet and Royal Danish Theatre on numerous occasions.

The queen also designed the sets for “Ehrengard” and was nominated for a Robert prize in that category as well.

READ ALSO: ‘Insanely popular’: Why are the Danish royals so important to Danes?

Hugely popular in Denmark, Margrethe studied at Cambridge in England and the Sorbonne in Paris, and is fluent in English, French, German and Swedish.

She has also translated plays, including Simone de Beauvoir’s “All Men Are Mortal” with her French-born husband, the late Prince Consort Henrik, under a pseudonym.

She has illustrated several books, including a Danish 2002 edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, and her paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Denmark and abroad.

READ ALSO: Denmark to get own version of ‘The Crown’ about Queen Margrethe

Margrethe underwent major back surgery last year, and passed the throne to her son on January 14 after a 52-year reign, making him King Frederik X.

She has retained her title of queen following her abdication.

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CULTURE

Rare Danish coin collection up for auction after 100 years

Like Sleeping Beauty cursed to sleep for 100 years, a Danish coin collection decreed to be kept off the market for a century will finally go under the hammer late this year.

Published: 17 May 2024 15:26 CEST
Rare Danish coin collection up for auction after 100 years

Denmark’s National Museum, exercising its right to first dibs, paid one million euros ($1.09 million) for seven of the collection’s around 20,000 coins.

“The quality is extraordinary. The collection has become a thing of legend. It’s like the princess had been sleeping for 100 years,” Helle Horsnæs, head of the National Museum’s coin and medallion collection, told AFP.

In 1922, Lars Emil Bruun, a Danish entrepreneur and coin expert, bought the collection from the aristocratic Bille-Brahe family, agreeing to respect the National Museum’s pre-emptive right to the collection.

He died the following year, adding in his will a condition to the sale of the collection.

“The story goes that Bruun, after having seen the devastation of the First World War, was very afraid that something would happen to the (museum’s) national collection,” Horsnaes said.

“And therefore he made a will, saying that his collection should be kept as a reserve for the national collection for 100 years after his death,” she added.

Kept hidden away in a secret location for 100 years, a board of trustees handed the collection over to his heirs on November 21, 2023.

It is estimated to be worth $72.5 million.

“People have been talking about it and talking about what will happen now when it is released,” Horsnæs said. “It has taken on a special history of its own.”

The seven pieces acquired by the museum date from the end of the 16th and early 17th centuries.

The rest will be sold by the Stack’s Bowers auction house in the autumn.

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