Norway should be buying works of art by the likes of Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso for its planned new national gallery, according to a politician aiming to become Oslo’s next mayor. Carl Hagen, the former head of the opposition right-wing liberal party, the Fremskrittspartiet (FrP, Progressive Party), told The Art Newspaper that works by Leonardo da Vinci should also be on the museum’s shopping list—even the Mona Lisa.
Money is no object it seems as the politician wants to tap into the nation’s vast profits from its booming oil and gas industries. Norway, home to 4.5m people, has become the world’s fifth-largest exporter of oil and the third-largest exporter of natural gas. “Our country should use its oil wealth to acquire art works of the highest international standard and build a museum for them,” Hagen said, unimpressed with the proposed national gallery, which is due to be completed in 2017 (its cost has not been announced).
Norway has been banking the profits from oil and gas exports in a petroleum fund since 1996, which had swelled to about €393bn by the end of March. Hagen said that buying Van Goghs and Picassos would be possible if 0.5%-2% of the petroleum fund was used to buy art. This would create an acquisition fund of €2bn-€7.8bn.
“A new national gallery is planned at the Oslo harbour front. I want to see a much bigger building to house the works I have suggested,” said Hagen, who added that hanging works of art by the world’s most famous artists in Norway’s major museums would develop tourism.
When asked whether other nations’ reluctance to sell their most treasured works of art makes his plan impractical, Hagen was unperturbed. “We now see Greece on the edge of bankruptcy, but France, Italy and the US are also in trouble. At one point they might be willing to sell,” he said.
Norway’s petroleum fund has been invested largely in stocks and fixed-income securities but the country’s politicians are looking at other things to invest in due to the size of the fund.
Norway’s minister for culture, Anniken Huitfeldt, is lukewarm about Hagen’s vision. “I am in favour of strong museums,” she said, but warns that art in museums cannot be treated as an asset class.
Audun Eckhoff, the director of the National Museum, was more positive, although he has very different artists in his sights. “It is a good idea to use our oil-based wealth to invest in art and the new [museum],” he said. But he warned: “Seeing them as an investment similar to stocks could mean they would be up for sale as well, and then we would lose the work.”
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'We need Leonardos and Van Goghs'