The ceo of the world's first sovereign wealth fund and Scandinavia's most ambitious museum
It looks like a colossal piece of Lego on the island of Odderøya. Nicolai Tangen, the tycoon who financed it, has enriched it with his enormous collection of Nordic art. Stunning, like the architecture that houses it.
of Christian House
6' min read
6' min read
Nicolai Tangen knows how to break down all kinds of barriers. The former hedge fund manager now runs the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the largest of its kind in the world (Tangen is called 'the trillion-dollar Norwegian'). As my boat approaches the harbour of his hometown, Kristiansand, on the southern coast of Norway, I notice that here his patronage has succeeded in promoting conservation: he has helped convert a pre-war grain warehouse on the island of Odderøya - a military fortress turned into a park - into one of Scandinavia's most ambitious art museums, and has enriched it with the world's largest private collections of modern Nordic art. Kunstsilo, a much-debated €60 million-plus project that combined public and private funds, opened its (huge) doors last year after eight years of construction. Upon my arrival in the milky Nordic light, it stands out like a colossal piece of Lego among the spring snow. Designed by Arne Korsmo in 1935, the structure once held some 15,000 tonnes of grain. After supplying the local mills for three quarters of a century, it was closed in 2008 and has been abandoned ever since. "It was a crumbling building," Tangen explains, showing me around the site. "It was a ruin. Now it is beautiful." At the age of 57, he has the strength, attitude and confidence of a man used to handling the responsibility of power and a network of important relationships: one day he is dealing with the finance minister and the next day he is skiing. His frank smile and his weekend look (today black jeans, a checked jacket and loafers) conceal his temperament.
Tangen grew up in Kristiansand in the 1970s, just when the Norwegian oil boom on the Stavanger coast had changed the country's fortunes. His father was a successful local entrepreneur, but it was his mother, an art historian, who nurtured his interest in the visual arts. "We travelled all over Europe visiting museums. I was bored to death, of course. And then at some point something broke through in me'. So, as his career in finance took off in London - where he founded AKO Capital (the initials are those of his eldest sons), managing a fund now worth $23.1 billion -, his encounter with the world of collecting became something of an obsession. In 2003, he took a two-year sabbatical to attend an MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. At first he immersed himself totally in Norwegian art, and then widened his gaze to the production of other Nordic countries.
Kunstsilo was transformed by the Spanish-Norwegian studio Mestres Wåge Arquitectes, in collaboration with the creative studio MX_SI. Its functionalist façade has been softened by cream-coloured shades. Inside, thirty silos have been cut out, like truncated tubular bells, leaving a central void that can be used for concerts and light and sound installations. Twenty-five galleries spread over three floors offer 3,300 square metres of exhibition space, while at the top of the building, 360-degree views of the landscape are filtered through glass prisms. Below, the pier has become another performance space - and for swimming - as the city turns to summer.
Tangen's philanthropic organisation, AKO Foundation, has contributed just under EUR 18 million to the restoration and he has donated his personal collection of about 5,500 works - with an estimated value of about EUR 48 million - to add to the city's regional art collection. "It is a gift to the Foundation, which then lends the collection to Kristiansand for eternity," Tangen explains. "The works will never be returned to me."
