Ingmar Bergman's Island Retreat Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 19th 2009 at 9:01PM

Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman's island retreat has been put up for auction. The AFP reports that his home on the Swedish island of Faro is estimated to be worth up to four million euros and that offers in that range have been coming in.

This location's light and stillness lent much to the films that Bergman shot there including "Persona," "The Shame," and "The Passion of Anna." The listing with Christie's Great Estates quotes Bergman's memoir in which he says, after visiting the island for the first time in 1960: "If one wished to be solemn, it could be said that I had found my real home; if one wished to be light hearted, it could be said that it was love at first sight."

The property on the remote and rugged island has four buildings. Hammars is the main house which was designed by architect Kjell Abramson with Bergman himself. The two-room writing lodge has an ocean view and was seen in the final sequence of the iconic television drama "Scenes from a Marriage." Angen is the winter retreat house with three bedrooms and a living room with a large fireplace and Damba, a restored 1854 farmhouse is next to a whitewashed barn which served as Bergman's private cinema.

A Swedish foundation wanted to buy the house and turn the house into a museum dedicated to his life and work but they didn't have enough money. Bergman died in 2007 at the age of 89 and the property is owned by his estate.

[Thanks, Lana]

Gallery: Ingmar Bergman's Swedish Retreat