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Christen Sveaas

Christen Sveaas collects painting and site-specific sculpture, in a collection of more than 2,000 works by over 300 artists built over more than 40 years. He turned his family's former wood-pulp mill at Jevnaker into the Kistefos Museum and sculpture park. In 2019 he added The Twist, a museum spanning a river, by Bjarke Ingels Group.

Artists named in the collection

Anish Kapoor, Marc Quinn, Olafur Eliasson, Yayoi Kusama, Claes Oldenburg, Jeppe Hein, Howard Hodgkin, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, Louise Bourgeois, Sigmar Polke, Ed Ruscha

On record

  • His foundation, set up in 2019, received about 800 works from his collection the following year.
  • Whitechapel Gallery showed works from the foundation in 2021-2022, selected by Ida Ekblad.
  • He gave Norwegian works by Johan Christian Dahl and Peder Balke to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Kunsthaus Zurich.

Institutional roles

  • Founder, Christen Sveaas Art Foundation

Questions

What does Christen Sveaas collect?Christen Sveaas collects painting and site-specific sculpture, in a collection of more than 2,000 works by over 300 artists built over more than 40 years. He turned his family's former wood-pulp mill at Jevnaker into the Kistefos Museum and sculpture park. In 2019 he added The Twist, a museum spanning a river, by Bjarke Ingels Group.

Which artists are in the Christen Sveaas collection?Cited sources name works by Anish Kapoor, Marc Quinn, Olafur Eliasson, Yayoi Kusama, Claes Oldenburg, Jeppe Hein, Howard Hodgkin, Martin Kippenberger.

Can the public see the collection of Christen Sveaas?Yes. Works are shown at Kistefos Museum and Sculpture Park in Jevnaker, Norway.

Sources

  1. Christen Sveaas Art Foundation, Whitechapel Gallery, 2021
  2. Northern Light: Christen Sveaas on building the dramatic beauty of Norway's Kistefos Museum, Sotheby's, 2022
  3. Kistefos Museum and Sculpture Park, Wikipedia
  4. The sculpture park, Kistefos Museum

Last verified 2026-10-31.

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