Jean Dubuffet Karin Mamma Andersson Sigrid Hjerten Mies van der Rohe All Together Now Learning Modern Food As Art: Is This a Trend? A Modest Mies Is Slated for Destruction

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At Bukowskis auction house, the region's largest, 30 percent of lots went unsold in a four-day auction of design items and other valuables ending October 31, compared with a usual 10 percent buy-in rate. While a few objects did fairly well, including paintings by Jean Dubuffet and the Swedish artists Karin Mamma Andersson and Sigrid Herten, other prices were as much as 30 percent below estimated value, and some usually popular items, like a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chair, failed to sell at all.

At Stockholm Auktionsverk, foreign paintings and sculptures brought in about $920,000, less than half of their combined starting price.

Consumer confidence in Sweden dropped to its lowest level in more than 15 years last month after the economy slowed, inflation accelerated, and unemployment rose. The government is requiring banks to freeze executives' salaries and cut bonuses in order to receive state aid.