20/05/2026
Before Þorvaldur Guðmundsson was a collector, he was a young sales clerk on Laugavegur. On his lunch breaks, he would walk over to Kjarval's studio on Austurstræti. Not to buy anything. Just to be near the work, and near the man who made it. That habit stayed with him for the rest of his life. The boutique hotel he built in 1965 on Bergstaðastræti became, among other things, the permanent record of it. Today the Hotel Holt collection holds more works by Kjarval than by any other artist.
If you have stayed with us, which work stayed with you?
Hotel Holt houses Iceland's largest private art collection, assembled by Þorvaldur Guðmundsson and his wife Ingibjörg over a lifetime. Kjarval is the most represented artist in the collection.