After three years they had gotten everything - why then the nine years of threats?

The catastrophic oil

In my youth´s joy with the old masters... particularly Rembrandt (1606 - 1669)... I was posessed by his technique. How did he achieve it? What was the secret? It was like searching for the holy grail. By chance, a student friend of mine found a book entitled The Hidden Technique of The Old Masters, A. J. Marogger. Jacques Marogger, former restorer at The Louvre. Settled in New York. He was convinced that the secret of the old masters was the oil they mixed the colors with. This oil (cooked oil) with lead oxide together with a Mastic solution gave a golden jelly. Each stroke of paint glowed in its sensual weight. This had to be what the old masters used!

America

I started exhibiting in America. A Robert Feldman had seen a portrait by me in the Norwegian National Gallery. He contacted me, wild with enthusiasm. It had started. Simultaneously I met an old painter: James Mason. He was a lover of Rubens, and a surviving student of Marroger. He believed he had improved his technique. Linseed oil, lead oxidized... in the sun... plus 50% Mastic was his prescription. I got started. Back in Norway I went to see the chief restorer of The Munch Museum. I asked him for advice concerning this delicate oil I was using. He blessed the recipe, believing I could add a table spoon of honey wax to the mixture to make the color even richer, even more luminous. After some time I saw that the paint was sticky – long after the picture was painted. According to the chief restorer, it was a mere question of using a fat varnish.

The oil was blessed.

Breakthrough

1986. I had my breakthrough in New York. Only praise, mostly. For the first time. They said I was painterly? Strange. In Norway I was only bad. I was invited to lecture several places in USA; was bought by several museums. They planned big museum exhibitions.

Then something strange happened. The Smithsonian and The National Gallery in Washington were warned not to exhibit me... by the Norwegian embassy. Museum exhibitions were stopped several times by the Norwegian embassy. I never got to know the reason. Håkon Mehren writes somewhere... that his exhibition of Waldemar Johansen (Norwegian painter) was stopped in the Berlin Museum für Bildende Kunst with threats from the Munch Museum. They would never lend out Munch again.... if the exhibtion was realized. Consequently it never was.

1988.

I have given a long lecture at The San Francisco Academy. Afterwards I was invited home to a private collector. My ”Self portrait in evening sun”... is hanging above the mantelpiece in the middle of the living room. I look at the picture more closely. A part of the blue sky was starting to sag, towards the edge of the frame. It was a shock. Safely at home I contacted the gallerist. Full alarm. I immediately had to repair it. At that time I was in Reykjavik, Iceland. I went to the studio and repaired the picture... and sent it back. A few months later it was sent to me in Oslo. The picture was now completely sagging. I started a new self portrait... as compensation and sent it back to the owner.

Shortly thereafter I was notified about one picture... after the other. It had taken about five years since I painted them...until they started running. This, however, was going to vary. Even 20 year old paintings can suddenly sag with no warning! I immediately changed technique to something very simple. Linseed oil + turpentine. Pretty boring... but safe.

Some would not accept a new version of the painting. They wanted a refund. They felt it was my fault... and I paid large sums. Paid and paid.

My wife knew nothing.

It was during the night that I painted one by one anew. It was my plan that... when the demand came, it was just to deliver... the finished, new picture. This was in the middle of the 90´s. My wife knew nothing. She was somewhat surprised that I spent this much time in the studio, but she respected it. And I did not bother her... with my great shame. I was away from her a lot. She barely saw me... when the evening came. Some of the students participated in my project. They copied in black and white... or grisaille... then I took over and finished. If I had only been doing modern art it would have been so easy! I was guilty. I considered myself guilty. I had delivered a bad commodity to the customer. The customer had gambled on someone controversial... beyond style and place. Consequently I owed the customer everything.

Usually I received a letter stating that the picture had sagged, yes even run. Then it was sent to me. I started a new version, found models... painted the picture. Ordered a new, fine frame and sent the finished picture back to the customer. If the customer was pleased, then the picture was replaced. If not, the picture was sent back and the customer received money. I copied about 32 pictures... I labored on several of them for a long time. Just as refined... just as beautiful as the first. I paid for their shipping to USA – by plane! Most of the pictures were large compositions.
In the middle of the 1990´s a major article appeared, saying that my picture ”The Cloud” had begun to run... A scandal article in Bergens Tidende. Presumably, because I applied for the position as a professor at The State Art Academy. The money reimbursements were plentiful, some big – some small.
It was the big ones I feared. The reimbursement for ”Woman with Milk” was 75 000 dollar. A great sum back then, in 1990. The worst thing was seeing the pictures rising in value. From 300 000 dollar to 600 000 dollar. On the second hand market.... throughout the 90´s.

1996.

It came to a break between me and my previous gallerist, M. Hamilton. The reason was that she would not supply the owners´addresses for my pictures in order to loan them for my Astrup Fearnley exhibition in 1998. Besides, she had tired of me. Quite simply perceiving me as inferior... in my struggle with copying.

1997.

I contacted Forum Gallery, where I had previously guest exhibited. The owner, Robert Fishko, thanked me for the inquiry... but said he had to consider for a couple of days. That he had to consider was ”bad news” for a painter from Norway, exhibiting in a known NY gallery was a gift from Above.
After a week he contacted me and said I was heartily welcome in his gallery, but that he was concerned about one thing. The ruined pictures... he had to retain some money... when there were sales, as security. Both for him and for me, in case of big claims. He was obiously warned by M. Hamilton, whom, at the end was tired of all the noise with me. ”You could suddenly switch to slalom... and then I would be left with the riot”. I signed the agreement! But was not happy... The next time in New York, in the fall of 1997, I mentioned to him that I was not happy. Many gallerists in NY had gone bankrupt. And the artists lost all their money.

So I asked for a better deal. He came up with an idea. If I had a safe deposit box somewhere in Europe, I could place the retained amount in the box – five years from 1997 to 2002. He thought five years was enough. After five years, money was to be sent back to him and then sent to me as income the same year. This was to make everything clear on his tax accounting and to insure that if his gallery went bankrupt, with my paintings there, I would have some security. I accepted this. Through an Icelandic friend (I was constantly at work in Iceland) I came into contact with a banker in Lech in Austria. I went to see the man (Bernd Fischer), with a book on myself as a gift. He accepted the check, and I travelled on. Now we had a safe deposit box. I remember I sent checks from Paris during an exhibition there, and later from Iceland.

Travel

I travelled extensively in this period... especially to Iceland. I taught in different academies in Europe and the southern part of America. Philadelphia Academy, New York Academy, Maryland University... etc.

Several of my ”dialogues” were performed with American actors... without royalties to me. By principle, I shall not make money on anything but my pictures. In 2002, I withdrew some money from the bank box and sent to Fishko... he wanted to retain some, for another five years. He had been notified of three or four more ruined pictures. Several pictures were replaced in this period. One of them (”The Singers”) was sold for 300 000 dollars, immediately following the return .

In this period I replaced in money... from my own pocket small pictures... small sums. The big sums were the dangerous ones My whole family was at stake. ”The Storyteller” was replaced in 2004 with a new ”Storyteller”. One of my major works.

Winter 2002
Museum Exhibition in South America.

The previous Minister of Planning Bendik Rugaas contacted me. The Chilean ambassador wanted an exhibition with me in San Diego. He came to my studio with the Venezuelan and Mexican ambassadors. All three of them wanted a big travelling exhibition in South America. Then the Chilean Ambassador... invited the whole cultural elite to a big event in his embassy. Many artists were there, but also poets and actors. Foreign Department people, etc. In the middle of the canapées, he gave a speech... in which he said, among other things: ”Odd Nerdrum... we will give him the place of honour among the Norwegian culture representatives...” There would be some loud reading... some singing and acting. But of course Odd Nerdrum would tower above it all. I was terrified. This was too much. I could feel the musty smell from the Foreign Department-people, seated one next to the other. They would not talk to me.

After a month, B. Rugaas called. He said the exhibition was off: ”Odd Nerdrum was not a current priority..”

Edge play.

I had finished ”The Last Days of Immanuel Kant”. It was first accepted at The National Theatre in Oslo, but then was rejected under mysterious circumstances in 2004.

The knife in the boot

I was in the cafeteria at The Metropolitan (New York). Seated with some Norwegians I barely knew. Told them I was going to the airport (Newark). There were extra large controls... the queues were long. When my turn came... the machine beeped. I went through several times, but the beeping did not stop. In the end I said I had best take off my boots... and out fell a sharp knife. Full alarm. A guard poked a revolver into my side and ordered: ”off with your clothes.” Then five-six military men with machine guns came running towards me and formed a circle – with me in the middle. I asked for permission to call the gallery... talk with Bob Fishko. Or my wife in Norway. No. A police man gave me a short speech: ”You are arrested, under the law... etc.” A Swedish inspector from the flight company SAS came over, greeted heartily... then turned to the police and said: ”He is not dangerous, he is just a Scandinavian artist”.

But they shook their heads. Now they opened the suitcase and found a copy of the magazine Der Spiegel. Leafed through it, as if there was heroin in it. Suddenly, a police woman says: ”Look, he is in the magazine”. It was a long article by Botho Strauss... about me. Everything changed.
I was accepted. Ok, said the leader of the staff. He can go. The Swedish inspector approached me. ”You were lucky. Unfortunately, though, you will be listed as suspect in the computer here”. Well... FBI is a danger too, I don´t know.

Regarding Botho Strauss

At the end of the article... he writes something I cannot forget. ”The Norwegian cultural life feels shame over the success of such a man as Odd Nerdrum in the USA”.

Nerdrum School

Several young painters wanted to come to Rødvik Farm. They were from Chile. They had read about me in Chilean magazines. Every summer, students come from all over the world, mostly from America. I teach, and they live in the big, renovated barn. Many single rooms, as in a cloister. There are many figurative painters in the world. They are struggling and receive no support from public institutions. They live with me for free but they get red wine two times a week.

Plus teaching.

Haugar 1999-2002
Contract for three years.

In this period, several of my works hung in Haugar Art Museum in Tønsberg. The director wanted a Nerdrum department in the old, big museum. This was in 1999. Several of the repainted pictures hung there. For example. ”The Singers”, replaced in 2002... and ”The Storyteller”, replaced in 2004, as well as ”Memory Hall”... replaced in 2000... ”The Mother”, replaced in 2001, etc.

Several people thought it was just bragging, that I had sold in America... Until some saw that... they differed sligthly from the originals. Then the gossip started.

April 2002

14 days after the strange experience in New York. Who had put the knife in the boot?
They found that the knife had come from the kitchen of the Metropolitan Museum.

In Oslo

My daughter Amo, age 17 then, came up the street. I was on the other side. One moment she saw me, turned... and disappeared.

Then... three big articles appeared in Dagens Næringsliv, written by Lena Lindgren (former employee of Klassekampen, that is: The Class Fight). Interviews with T. Hegnar and M. Hamilton. Hegnar believed I had earned 160 million krones lately. And M. Hamilton said she had sold, I don´t remember, but wasn´t it more than 100 pictures? She once told me of a picture which I had to replace, which in the end had been sold five times. None of the numbers were correct. But... these articles were in effect a police report. In the magazine Kapital, Hegnar continued a week later: ”I take back the 160 million, I believe it was more, probably 180 million.”

In the wait

My main work of repainting the pictures was – nearly completed. Every now and then, some picture would come up, but not all at once. My wife, Turid, had finally found a kindegarden for the twins. But we both waited for the attack from the Tax Authorities. It was so obvious that it would come.

Tax Letter

The letter arrived 6. June 2002. ”A list over all works unsold, sold and in process shall be compiled, including a short description - alternative title – so that the specific work may be identified”.

This was the worst sentence. Should I work without freedom in Norway? No. Iceland. Iceland was the place. I had threatened to move there several times. Now my wife realized that we had to move.

Bente, my auditor, took me to an aquaintance of hers, by the name Wenche (lawyer). She was from Western Norway and looked very depressed. Yet another lawyer we met, she was from an artists´ organization, but she never came back. All three of them laid plans for me. The atmosphere was horrific. I asked if the Norwegian Tax Authorities... would attack Forum Gallery in USA. That gave them a good laugh, though. ”Who do you think you are. Only the big ones, Kosmos and Statoil, are investigated abroad”.

Iceland

I took care of a pile of bank papers. We applied for an exit permit. The boys and I went to Iceland in the middle of November.

Citizenship

I applied for citizenship in Iceland. The ugly tax papers were sent to Allthingi, the parliament, and my application was granted with immediate effect. I thought myself safer with an Icelandic passport. The Norwegian evil became more remote.

2002 should have been a very good year. Maybe too good. Everything which happened from winter 2002 until spring were diffusely connected. They were out to stop ”Nerdrum” again... and this time ”for good”.
I am not alone. It has happened before, both with Edvard Munch and Kirsten Flagstad.

FBI

The Norwegian Tax Authorities managed to attack Forum Gallery through FBI – IRS. They gutted the gallery... to the point where everything and everyone in the gallery were investigated. Bob Fishko told me that he could not remember anything like it having happened in the American art world.
He gave up on me after this. He said: ”Tell me, are you doing drugs?”
During the last years in his gallery nothing happened. No plans of museum exhibitions... nothing.

Naughty letters

All the naughty tax letters – were never read by me. I could not stand the bureaucratic barking. They were first read by the friend of Bente Sletten, then by my wife. She took over all the paper work in the fall 2002.

She saw it was inhibing my work. That summer of 2002 was spent solely in the service of the bureaucracy. I couldn´t paint, and was so unhappy for that!

The authorities have done good work. Concerning my social standing, I am murdered.

A man

It must have been in 2005. My wife and I walked along Park Avenue, 67 Street... a man was standing with a mobile phone... short leather jacket, short hair... ”Mr. Nerdrum is here”. We both heard it clearly. The man disappeared into the crowd.

But we saw another man on the other side ending his phone call... before he disappeared as well. Somebody´s after me. Somebody with long shadows.
Jørn Holme (now in position as State Antiquary) was the leader of the culture deparment of Økokrim (Financial Crime department of the police). Probably drunk as he said this at a party: ”The artists shall be left in peace, but we will take Nerdrum one day”.

This is a report... 1996. From an aquai

Notes.

Galleries often have ”special” agreements with artists. Gallery Haaken had.

I have had a ”special” agreement only once. As the police conducted their interrogation – one of them said (they both smelled red): ”Why didn´t you place your money in stocks?” To which I answered that this would be unloyal to the gallery. Besides – everything could have been lost.

By the way – I have never earned a penny on the money in the box, and later paid taxes for every Norwegian krone.

At Fornebu.

When I sent the pictures to NY, the freight manager said he found it strange that I paid for it myself. All other artists get their shipment paid by the Foreign Department.


From 1997-2002

For the most part, I paid for the advertisings in art magazines through Forum Gallery, as for example Art News and Art in America.

On The Culture Board.

I never sent bills for reading documents. Later I was told I should have!

Hepatitus

When I was sick with hepatitus: two months in hospital, one year recreation. – Not allowed to paint. – Too strenuous for me.

I did not think about the social health care system.

Mastic.

Mastic is a resin which comes from the trees off the Island Cios in The Mediterrenaen. It has been frequently used throughout the history of painting – and has always been extremely expensive. An English restorer, I went to visit her. She gave me a bag with one kilo Mastic. ”This is too soft for me”, she said... you can have it.

I later heard that Cios has a large export of Mastic. Most of it is sold to Indian film industry, as glue for wigs and moustaches. Later I was told that since the Bollywood industry needed so much of it, they started tapping it from young trees. Supposedly, there used to be a law... saying only the older trees should be tapped for resin.

It took me a long time to understand that Mastic... was the great enemy.
But only Mastic – mixed with oil, supplies that soft jelly – which enables you to paint skin so living.
The horrible thing is that this mixture decelarates after five-ten years. That is, it doesn´t dry anymore, begins to dissolve again until it finally starts to run .... Well, that´s how naive I was.

Restorers Are insecure... I have never gotten clear advice. Old handcraft painters have given good advice. If I had sought this dying race in time... Then I would have been spared this nightmare which has lasted since 1998.

Andreas Baader picture.

Two men... The Haaland brothers from Bergen wanted to buy the picture in 1981... but for a low price, ca 20 000 krones.

The picture is big, about 250 x 300 centimeters, and was beautifully hung in the staircase in the university of Bergen. A present to the university from the brothers. A committee was to be apointed, in order to consider the gift. In the contract with the brothers, I demanded - that the picture should hang on a fixed wall. Finally, the big picture was accepted... after a long political debate. But... among others, the artist Morten Krogh, who was on the university committee, said straight out that the picture could be accepted... but not hang safely. One had to expect that it would end in the basement. Based on these conditions, I had the picture sent back. I cancelled the sale. I had not yet received money.

The money was momentarily sent... but I returned it immediately. They threatened with involving the police, and also the usual threat about six years imprisonment for theft of state property. My brother (lawyer) told me straight out that I had to expect three years imprisonment... he laughed at my unhappy face. I received a letter of arrest and was very scared.

So, I called Erling Staff (lawyer)... ran up all the stairs to his appartment. He offered me wine... listened to me... wrote a short sentence... which I understood nothing of.

”I will send this to Bergen tomorrow” he said. I was reassured, relieved. Not a word from Bergen... anymore. Not a word.

The state attorney said something in the newspapers abou it – I can barely remember. That artists were enthusiasts without contact with reality, and that the sale was annulled. Staff´s letter was an obvious stroke of genius. All of the endless "bla, bla " that was written – was simply washed away with a sentence.

1992. The Museum of Contemporary Art.

A restorer (female) was very interested in my technique. She was threatening. A man... approached me, in Iceland... with a letter from this woman (2006).

She was interested in the pictures that were ruined. Wanted to make a report on this technical problem, and asked for permission from me. I answered yes. The tax authorities... ignored this problem intentionally. The police likewise.

As if it hadn´t happened. But it has happened. And therefore I ended up in the hands of the Norwegian state. Nine years is a long time. Longer than the second world war... of which I have heard so much.
I am sorry I have been mentally absent. Numbers are hostile insects... they jump up from the paper

- straight in my face. - And letters from the authorities: I do not open the envelope. Work, though, with compositions (a kind of abstract mathematics).

Difficult enough in my old masterly handcraft. I have led a sleepwalking-like existence.

- and dreamt of escaping all these difficulties which have been inflicted on me from the outside world.

A genuine bandit

The investigation. First a huge tax audit...

Then talk of how I had painted double... and grabbed the profit illegally. When the explanation came... they lost all interest in that.
Then there was the retainment of the money... and finally they returned to the double painted pictures. But they would not accept ”the problem”.

American B-movies have probably given the red bureaucrats hope of a genuine bandit.
I have gone through a sorrow... all the work which has gone lost – the shame... the loneliness.

Pressure from the outside

In all years, Norway has been pressured to exhibit me. Sweden pressured Norway several times in official connections. - 1979 in The Culture House in Stockholm, then in Gothenburg Art Museum in 1987. I had to pay the freight myself, the Foreign Department refused to pay.
I became the center of attention every time. - and Norway hated it... bringing mendacious reports from the exhibitions. Germany 1982 – Norway was pressured again. Norway strangled my possibility of ”becoming a name”.

When you rape a child, you kill it afterwards. The child could gossip.

2002

I chose to move out of Norway. Norway does not like people like me. I wasn´t supposed to represent Norway. That´s why they have been after me, everywhere.

There were attempts at museum exhibitions – after I had moved to Iceland too, and become an Icelander. When the first attempt was stopped by Norway, I cancelled the others. When Time made a big article about me in 2003, the whole article was stopped.

Mysterious conditions

After the attack in spring 2002, I thought my undeserved presence in the press was the reason. But I have found that it´s even worse since I have cut off contact with the press. They are out to kill me!!

- 2006

I was walking alone down the stairs of The Metropolitan Museum. Suddenly I received a hard blow in the back. I fell down the stairs – hurt myself badly. - looked back... only people sitting and watching.

At the airport I was taken aside for an extra check. ”Randomly...” they joked. Right after, a voice said from the loudspeaker: ”If there is a person that looks strange, please contact us!”

The authorities have been waiting for ”a little suicide”. Now they will not wait anymore!!

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