The National Museum takes Tangen’s self-criticism – VG

On Monday, the National Museum board addressed fairness challenges related to a sponsorship deal that Nicolai Tangen and his Ako Foundation announced in December last year.

– The board believes that a clear learning point from the current case with the AKO Foundation is to be careful, writes board chair Linda Bernander Silseth in an email to VG.

The background is VG’s articles on how financier and now oil fund manager Nicolai Tangen announced a large sum of money to the museum in December at the request of his friend, museum director Karin Hindsbo. When VG asked questions about the friendship, the board ordered a probity assessment that concluded that Hindsbo was incompetent and could not handle the case.

Tangen resigned from the AKO Foundation in July, as one of the preparations to take over as director of the Oil Fund, but the impartiality assessment indicates that Hindsbo cannot handle the sponsorship case anyway.

Take self-criticism

Both Bernander Silseth and Hindsbo have previously defended the procedure in interviews with VG, noting that the museum must derive income from private donors.

The chairman of the board now admits that the board could have avoided the fairness case.

In hindsight, it would have been great if the director’s fairness assessment had been raised and already decided at the board meeting on December 9, 2019, where he was first briefed on the case.

The new National Vestbanen Museum in Oslo costs more than NOK 6.1 billion and will be completed next year. The museum will house ancient and modern art, contemporary art and architecture.

The decision of the board also indicates that “they agree in the assessment made by the law firm Føyen Torkildsen that the director Karin Hindsbo is incompetent in the case related to a possible collaboration between AKO and the National Museum, which also does the own Karin Hindsbo “.

Access to emails and interview information shows that:

• Last fall, Hindsbo asked Tangen for money for the new National Museum, which will open at Aker Brygge in Oslo next year.
• Tangen himself gave the green light to the sums of money in December last year, shortly before entering the Norges Bank application process for the position of oil fund manager.
• In January, Hindsbo traveled to London to discuss the content of the collaboration between the AKO Foundation and the museum with Tangen.
• On March 10, the National Museum received a concrete offer to transfer money from the AKO Foundation.

Hindsbo sat on the board of directors of the Norwegian Tangen foundation, Ako Kunststiftelse until 2017 and was invited to her wedding.

– Will begin formal negotiations

However, the museum will continue discussions on a sponsorship agreement for the AKO Foundation:

“The Board of the National Museum wants formal negotiations to begin on the content of a possible collaboration with the AKO Foundation this fall. The draft of a possible agreement must be presented to a joint meeting, which will decide whether to reach an agreement or not, ”the board decided.

The board also requests that management prepare draft guidelines on how the National Museum will handle future contact with potential external partners. The draft will also inform the acquisition of fairness assessments and will be presented at the next board meeting.

Criticisms of the Storting and teachers

Several have reacted after VG brought up the sponsorship case.

The Storting Culture Committee Leader Kristin Ørmen Johnsen (H) states that “The case seems regrettable” and law professors E claim Smith, Jan Fritjof Bernt, and Christoffer Conrad Eriksen are critical of the procedure and understanding of fairness rules.

– You might think that this is just talking to some friends about gifts for a good cause and therefore not problematic. But in such situations, there are certainly some conditions on the part of the donor, and it is clear that case prosecution is problematic in such a disability, Smith says.

Freddy Øvstegård, a member of the SV committee, has asked the Ministry of Culture to consider a possible agreement between the AKO Foundation and the National Museum.

– To break

Emeritus law professor Jan Fritjof Bernt from the University of Bergen was clear in his assessment of the case at VG recently:

– It was a violation of the disqualification rules when Hindsbo contacted Tangen about the possibility of a collaboration with the National Museum. Then she has taken a first step to start a process towards an agreement, and thus participated in the processing of the case, she said.

Sister of AKO board member

The brother of Chairman of the Board Bernander Silseth is former Conservative Chairman, NRK and NHO, John G. Bernander. He is now on the board of Ako Kunststiftelse. When VG asked about this in June, it also ordered a self-assessment of itself.

The chairman of the Ako Kunststiftelse board, Arvid Grundekjøn, has informed VG that the discussions about financial support for the National Museum appeared during a Christmas dinner in which the board members participated in Oslo.

– There are many who know each other in this collaboration, Grundekjøn said in June.

According to the impartiality assessment, it was considered whether the art foundation where the brother is a board member should be responsible for the payment of financial support. The art foundation board considered the matter in June and it has been decided that it will not proceed.

As it will be the British foundation that will finally enter into collaboration with the museum, the lawyers concluded that Bernander Silseth is not incompetent. She informs VG that she and her brother have not discussed the sponsorship case directly.

– It is not possible to predict which institutions will receive funding, wrote the director Philip Lawford of the AKO Foundation in London to VG last week.