There is more and more talk surrounding sustainability, not only in the fashion sector but also with regards to furniture, home décor and appliances. According to the Swedish Agency for Environmental Protection, our homes represent 20% of environmental impact and of this percentage, almost half is made up of furniture and furnishings. Both the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and the World Nature Fund encourage reuse to reduce waste, pollution and limit the impact on the environment and climate.

"Buying second-hand items is not just a trend, but something necessary for conscious change," explains Pontus Silfverstolpe, co-founder of Barnebys.

Related: What’s in Your Attic? Retro Toys, Antiques or Vintage Ikea Furniture?

This new awareness is therefore pushing trade in a sustainable direction. In the same way that the Y and Z generations increasingly reject fast fashion, the same trend seems to take hold in the world of interior design and furniture.

According to data by Barnebys, sales of furniture and furnishings in 2018 increased by 32% compared to previous years. The interest intensified especially in the under-45 age group, an age at which many people buy and furnish their first home. While prices continue to rise in terms of 20th-century design and contemporary furniture, antiques and classic furniture seem to be increasingly accessible to any wallet.

"Today it is possible to buy a high-quality object made by hand in the 1800s for less than the cost of a piece of IKEA furniture," continues Silfverstolpe.

In the last few years, the secondhand market has become more accessible. Fewer and fewer people throw away items, instead favoring exchange or sale through dedicated channels, such as auction. To avoid the practice of quantity over quality that fast fashion has taught us, new generations instead choose to buy used items with particular attention to craftsmanship and durability.

"Quality pays," insists Silfverstolpe. "Not only for the wallet but also for the environmental impact. This explains the growing interest in unique and personalized furniture, where quality is an essential prerequisite for objects to last."

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Research by Barnebys has shown an increasing number of people under 45 buy vintage and antique items. Why? A few simple reasons: quality, sustainability and convenience.

Although Scandinavian design is considered the pinnacle of modernity today, and Hans Wegner's iconic designs grace the cover of major interiors magazines, his fame was actually launched in America. In 1959 the most famous men in the world - Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy - used his "The Chair" during their televised presidential debate. From then on, Wegner's designs would reach international heights and change the course of furniture design forever. 

Born in 1914 in Tonder, a small town in southern Denmark, Hans Wegner revolutionized the world of seating. While still young, Hans Wegner already knew what he wanted to do with his life. Passionate about woodworking, he spent his adolescence discovering the secrets of the craft, thanks to the help of a German craftsman who helped him make objects. At the age of 20, the young Danish decided to aim higher and moved to the capital, Copenhagen, to complete his training at the School of Arts and Crafts.

Heading to the east coast of Denmark, Hans Wegner made his furniture until 1943 alongside Erik Møller and Arne Jacobsen and became their assistant. For him, this first experience will prove fruitful since the two founding fathers of Danish design will give him the opportunity to express his talents by participating in the design of the new city hall of Århus. 

From then on, his minimalist approach to furniture will continue to be popular, as illustrated by the many reissues of his most beautiful works and his current success at auction.

To achieve this, the furniture architect founded his own office in 1944. At this time, he already knew the importance of surrounding himself with exceptional craftsmen, like the master cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen, with whom he produced some of his top furniture, starting with the chair 501, also called The Chair, which cemented his reputation in the 1950s since it was the chair used in a televised debate between vice president Richard Nixon and Senator John F Kennedy.

Another huge success of Hans Wegner's was the Wishbone Chair (CH24), a model with ultra-clean lines, four legs, a seat and an armrest. Functional and above all, adaptable to any room in the house, the exceptional design will bring him fame and legacy since seven decades later, the Wishbone Chair continues to be produced and sold in mass around the world by the company Carl Hansen & Søn whose catalog still offers over 20 designs by the Danish designer.

A prolific creator, Hans Wegner has designed more than 450 different chairs and furniture styles throughout his life. With innovative models like the Peacock chair, the Wing Chair, the OX chairs and Papa Bear, Wegner combined modernity, lightness and simplicity in his work. He became one of the undisputed masters of Nordic design and Scandinavian style - alongside Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, Poul Henningsen and Børge Mogensen. It was also common knowledge that each of the designer's furniture was constructed of the highest quality.

Thanks to a very long career, the designer was rewarded many times. Appointed honorary member of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, he was the first designer to be awarded the Lunning Prize and received the 8th International Design Award, as well as the grand prize of the Milan Triennale and the Eckersberg medal. Wegner died in 2007 at the age of 92, and many of his works are now exhibited in major museums such as the MoMA in New York and Die Neue Sammlung in Munich. His work is also successful at auction such as his crocodile cabinet from 1949, which sold for 101,000 euros in 2015 at a sale in Paris.

Find all the works of Hans J. Wegner on Barnebys!

Hans Wegner forged a style of furniture in the mid-20th century that glorified purity, comfort and craftsmanship. Here's a look back on the illustrious career of a leader of Danish design.

A portrait of Lucretia by Artemisia Gentileschi, rediscovered in a collection in Lyon, France where it was kept for 40 years, will go on sale at Artcurial on November 13, revealed The Art Newspaper.  

The canvas that will be presented at Artcurial is characteristic of Gentileschi's work, in which strong and courageous women from antiquity or the Bible, such as Judith, Susanna and Salome, are staged in intense scenarios. The tragic figure of the ancient Roman nobleman Lucretia appears repeatedly in the oeuvre of the Italian Baroque painter. Lucretia commits suicide after being raped by the son of the king of Rome and here she is shown at the moment right before she plunges the knife into her chest, killing herself due to shame as she was married at the time. The rape and her subsequent suicide ignited a rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy and led to the establishment of a republic.

Gentileschi took particular interest in the subject of Lucretia because she had been raped by Agostino Tassi, a painter who worked with her father, Orazio. Orazio pressed charges against Tassi in 1612 since he had taken Artemisia's virginity and then refused to marry her. Tassi was convicted of the rape and imprisoned, but was released the following year. 

According to The Art Newspaper, this portrait was painted in the mid-1630s while Gentileschi was in Naples. During this period she also painted Esther Before Assuerus, which is now part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

"Discovering such a subject, which has been treated by such a mythical artist as Artemisia Gentileschi, is a privilege, and the exceptional state of preservation of the painting makes it possible a unique work," said Matthieu Fournier, Artcurial's director of Old Masters and the 19th Century, to The Art Newspaper. 

Lucretia is estimated to fetch between 600,000 and 800,000 euros ($656,000-874,000) at the November auction in Paris. The work could easily achieve more, as last year another Gentileschi portrait of Lucretia was auctioned at Dorotheum for 1.9 million euros, more than double its estimate.

The record for a work by the artist goes to Self-Portrait as St. Catherine of Alexandria, a 1615 canvas acquired by the National Gallery in London in July 2018 for $4.4 million. The self-portrait is also a direct reference to the lawsuit between the artist and  Tassi.  Despite this painful period of her life, Gentileschi would later establish herself as a leading court painter in Florence and by perseverance (and talent) become the first woman admitted to the city's Academy of Design.

Find more Artemisia Gentileschi on Barnebys 

A portrait of Lucretia by Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi that was recently rediscovered in a French collection will be on sale in Paris in November. 

An Artemisia Gentileschi Painting Reappears after 40 Years

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