Baugur founder Jon Asgeir Johannesson is understood to have angered former staff by trying to sell them thousands of pounds worth of designer furniture from its head office.

According to The Daily Telegraph, staff who were made redundant when the Icelandic investor collapsed last month are being offered the likes of Arne Jacobsen chairs and Conran desks.

An email to former staff from Baugur employee Hordur Logi Hafsteinsson, said: “Ingibjorg and Jon have decided that out of the chairs and table that they acquired in the office they want sell [sic] some of the items.”

It is understood Johannesson and his wife, who is also a Baugur board director, bought the contents of Baugur’s New Bond Street office from the company’s administrator. However, they decided they do not require certain items.

The items include 21 desks for£300 each, 22 office chairs for£200 each, and four “games room armchairs” for£300 each.

The email was sent to about two dozen staff, the vast majority of whom have now left Baugur.

One former staff member was outraged at the “arrogance” of the email. “I am treating it as uninvited spam,” the person said.

The former employee added that the furniture “was very cool when it was new but is looking quite tatty now.”

Baugur chief executive Gunnar Sigurdsson said that no one is profiting from the sale.

The whereabouts of Leif the Lucky – the 10ft tall statue of a Viking that welcomed visitors to the head office – is unknown.

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