Is this a real Hans Wegner bar bench?  

Good luck IDing! I hope its genuine!

This thing is listed at $18k on another website. Whoa!

It's an awesome bench.

How did you get your hands on it?

grambo, while that is a Wegner bench, it was not made by Johannes Hansen, but rather PP Mobler. PP has re-issued quite a few Wegner designs, including this PP589 bench, in ash, a wood not offered by JH (at least not during most of their existence).

The reason it has gone through two eBay auctions without a bid is because it is priced at about what you could buy it for new.

The Barnebys appraisal of $12-14K at auction is worthless, and simply embarrassing for Barnebys.

As of this moment, I am unaware of any recent Chinese knockoffs of this bench (probably because it is not very well known). However, seeing as the form and design are fairly straightforward, the Chinese might be making a liar out of me in the near future.

Well, I did find this recent Lauritz listing, which has a JH label on a new-looking ash bench.

http://www.lauritz.com/en/auction/hans-j-wegner-for-johannes-hansen-benc...

However, I have a 1970 JH catalog which does not have the 589 bench in it. Perhaps JH did re-release the 589 in ash after 1970 and before they closed down.

Another possibility is that PP made this bench in ash for JH late during the 70's or 80's and it was sold under the JH label. Here is a label that from a chair that was only made by PP Mobler, but retailed by JH.

Yet another possibility is that someone removed the PP Mobler label on this Lauritz bench, and replaced it with a JH label. That Lauritz bench ash finish looks very new to be JH made.

. . . and I did forget about the Peacock chair, which JH did make in ash, so perhaps the OP chair was made by JH as part of their late production. If there are tack holes that match where the metal plaque is located on other 589 benches, then that would be another clue to factor in.