Ingmar Bergman’s home up for auction

The children of world-renowned Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman are carrying out their late father’s wishes to have his home auctioned off to the highest bidder.

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“We have no idea who the buyer will be,” said son Daniel Bergman to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

The will of the famed Swedish film director, who died on July 30th of last year, specifies that his five properties on the isolated Baltic island of Fårö be sold, including his home, affectionately known as Hammars.

Bergman’s children are now looking for a real estate agent to manage the sale of the home on the international market.

Documentary filmmaker and friend Marie Nyreröd, recalled how important the house was to Bergman, who helped design the sprawling seaside estate.

“For him it was security and inspiration,” she told Expressen.

Nyreröd also stressed that the home is an invaluable piece of Swedish cultural history.

“It would be a shame if it disappeared into the hands of a private individual,” she said.

Bergman purchased the land in the early 1960s and built his house in 1967.

Bergman’s extensive family gathered at the home on Fårö for the first of its famed annual birthday celebrations in 1978, when the titan of Swedish cinema turned 60.

Over the years, Bergman became a staple in the local community on Fårö, where he is buried next to his wife Ingrid in the local cemetery.

However, many speculate that the sale of the house portents the Bergman family's abandonment of the island which is in many ways with Bergman’s isolated private life.

“Yes, it looks that way,” said son Daniel to Aftonbladet.

Altogether, Bergman’s Fårö properties have a tax value of 10.3 kronor ($1.72 million), but its eventual market value remains anyone’s guess.

“Fårö has always been expensive, but this is a unique place. It can be worth as much as one can imagine,” said Gotland real estate agent Leif Bertwig to Expressen.

Bergmans’ inheritance, including proceeds from the sale of the house, is to be divided equally nine ways, one for each of his eight surviving children, as well as the children of Bergman’s son Jan who died in 2000.