- Rolf E. Stenersen was a smiling manipulator

27. December wrote the Review about the Stenersen collection, where at least 47 works have disappeared. Munchmuseet has been in charge of the collection since 2010 .

Among the lost art of six Munch-works museum thought they had: No one knows how the graphic works "Omega cry", "Marats death", "the Crying young woman by the bed", "Portrait of mrs. R.", "Tiergarten Berlin" and barnebildet "Aage Christian Gierløff" is been of.

the Newspaper has gone through a number of different records over the Stenersen collection, from various dates. We have also reviewed correspondence between the city of Oslo art collections and the Student from the 70's, and documents from the national archives.

In the old bento box of the collection, which today is located at the Munchmuseet, missing a number of kartotekkortene that describes each picture.

- Created chaos

It is perhaps not so strange that the registration is deficient. Arne Eggum stood for the cataloguing of the collection in 1974. He tells Rolf E. Stenersen, the man who gave the collection to the municipality of Oslo, created the chaos in the system with the will of god.

It was made index cards of the collection, but then he took out some cards, and brought thus chaos, says Eggum to the Newspaper.

there Were Stenersen took out the cards?

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- Yes, yes. He liked not stalled the numbers and structures. He knew that he flattered the politicians by giving this collection as a gift to the municipality, says Eggum.

Eggum explains that the Stenersen would that the art collection should be alive, not stuck in a register.

- Kartotekkortene was in a way Stenersens private archive, made that he would hold an order he and the Student thought were straightforward. He took out some cards, of the works which he would not have in the collection or who had never been with, " he says.

STOLEN: the Painting "the History" by Edvard Munch was stolen in 1973. The year after, it came to right. At least 47 works are still missing. Photo: Munchmuseet Show more -Needed confusion

Eggum believes the unorthodox bokførerstilen had a starting point in Stenersens personal philosophy. He describes Stenersens livsanskuelse as a mixture of kaosteori and thoughts inspired by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

- For a finanssystem should be able to work, there had to be a certain amount of confusion. There was too much clarity, solidified it, and when it was pure communism, says Eggum.

Blur there was also a bento box of the Stenersen collection.

- Within a chaotic system, one could find ways and means, and then it was fun to live. In a hundred percent regulated system, it was not fun to live. Stenersen looked at the chaos as a positive force that could set things in motion, so things could happen and the world could move forward, " he says.

Eggum believes the only bento box tells us, is that Stenersen in consultation with the Student welfare organisation sought to bring an order in the collection, but that he did not complete it.

the Art was worth millions. So messed up Oslo it away Comment

He started on it, but at one time or another he found it no longer opportunt to continue, so he dissolved bento box, " he says.

Gullible

Eggum is critical to improving the bento box for a lot of weight.

I think it is pointless to refer to kartoteksystemet in any other context than how the collection was changed and treated while it stayed on the studentbyen on the Parish. It only shows that someone has tried to bring order in something, but not have managed it, " he says.

Sten Stenersen jr., granddaughter of kunstsamler Rolf E. Stenersen, explains that the treatment of the bento box was quite typical of his grandfather.

- He also wrote the contracts on the back of napkins, and put them in his pocket. It was not so carefully, " says Stenersen jr. to Dagbladet.

he says He also remembers a case where a grandfather had sold a picture, written a contract on a napkin, and never got paid.

He was in many ways very gullible, and it is not always he had with straightforward people to do. Then there was a lot of confidence, " he says.

This struck especially out in the bestefarens later years, where he several times to have sold the artwork to the "dubious" art dealers without getting a receipt.

There were many who exploited his connections and his broad contact area with the artists. Not least, abused the trust.

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Stenersen jr. confirm bestefarens non-traditional approach to indexing.

He skaltet and valtet with the collection. He took the things out and come with something new. Something disappeared, something he sold.

the More central the Munch paintings were sold on the open market. The money used Stenersen to buy other paintings, which formed the basis for the collection Stenersen later gave to the municipality of Bergen in 1971.

today, there are several works from the Stenersen collection which is missed. Any one knows not, is lost, stolen, sold, or whether they have disappeared in other ways. Do you think a more traditional bookkeeping had made this list easier for posterity?

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- Yes, be preserved. That, I think. Grandpa could go to the Munchmuseet, talk with the caretaker, access on index cards and take what he wanted. Sometimes he tore in pieces kartotekkortene when he took them out. It had never happened in the day. Everything at the time went very much on trust.

Eggum confirms that the Stenersen often be able to remove the photos on impulse.

- If Stenersen saw a picture he didn't like, he could just remove it and the corresponding kartotekkortet, " he says.

well-Known Munch

Eggum is more interested in Stenersens books. He draws especially up novellesamlingen "Goodnight then" and the novel "Poor Napoleon", released in respectively 1931 and 1934.

- If one reads them, which is one of the finest experimental literature in the 30's, as one understands more about his view of reality. For by the side of it that he wondered, as he was an artist. He was a rich personality. He amused himself, and had a certain contempt for the dry officials. In the press have Stenersen been wrongly portrayed as a victim, but it is perhaps more proper to characterize him as a "smiling manipulator", he says.

Books awakened also the attention of Edvard Munch.

the Munch had interest for Stenersen because he was the most gifted avant-garde artist within the literature at the time. Stenersen wrote well a lot of these things to impress Edvard Munch. They knew each other in the 20's. When was the Stenersen Norwegian champion in the sprint, and had barely begun to buy some pictures of Munch, says Eggum.

He does not believe there is any doubt that Munch was reading Stenersens books, and says that the Stenersen wrote in the preface to one of his books that he tried to write so Munch, painter".

- There was a bond between the two - a kind of dadaist band (dadaismen was a popular kunstretning in the 1920s, ed.anm.). Munch could say anything, he could say "the moon is always rounder", and know that the Stenersen understood. He understood Munch as an artist.

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