Although Lars Ulrich is mainly know as one of the lead figures of the hardrock band Metallica, selling well over 80 million records, he was recently in the news for selling an impressive collection of post war art. In the last half year works from his collection were predominently represented in the major Post War Art sales of the sale rooms of Christie's New York and London. These sales lead to spectacular results.

On the evening of the 14th of May 2002 Christie's New York offered a grouping of five important paintings from the collection of Lars Ulrich as the highlight of the major Post-War and Contemporary sale. The results were staggering. The auction room was packed to the capacity and bidders, both present and on a bank of phones, fought fiercely to acquire these works. Within a few minutes of tense excitement, existing price structures for the represented artists were broken beyond recognition and three new world record were established. Asger Jorn 's In the beginning was the image, 1965 more than doubled its pre-sale estimate and sold for more than four-times the highest previous price obtained for that artist ($ 2.099.500). Karel Appel's Women, Children, Animals, 1951 ($757.500), was bought by the Cobra Museum in Amstelveen and broke the world record for this artist ass well. Jean Michel Basquiat's Profit 1982I similarly provoked applause from the room when it smashed its previous world record by over $2 million bringing the new world record up to $5.509.000.

As the above shows Lars Ulrich has a special interest in works from the artists of the CoBrA Movement. Growing up in Denmark in the late sixties and early seventies in a cultural inspiring enviroment Lars Ulrich was exposed to the works of Asger Jorn and his contemporaries. When interviewed about this period he states: 'I certainly have early recollections of going up to Louisiana and other Danish Museums and being exposed to a lot. CoBrA penetrates at a deeper level in Denmark than it does anywhere else, apart from Holland, and so it was something about which you just had a sense of awareness.'

The succes of the band Metallica gave him the opportunity to compose a collection of CobrA works that consist of only highlights. He sees clear relations between the CoBrA-art and his music. The key word in this relationship is 'Energy'. When we listen to the music of Metallica it isn't hard to understand that the creator of this music can be attracted to the colourful and energetically painted works of artists like Appel and Jorn.