Artist Bjarne Melgaard Files Lawsuit to Reclaim Control of Valuable Art Collection

DESPAIRED: The artist Bjarne Melgaard in his apartment at Frogner in Oslo. Photo: Espen Rasmussen / VG

Bjarne Melgaard believes he was deceived by his former partners. Now he is announcing a lawsuit to regain control of an enormous art fortune.

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On Saturday, VG told the unknown story of how Norway’s greatest contemporary artist, Bjarne Melgaard (55), has ended up in crisis.

The battle for art with an estimated value of NOK 200 to 300 million may be on its way to the Oslo District Court. You can read the whole story here.

Large parts of Melgaard’s art production throughout the decade until 2020 are today controlled by Melgaard’s former partners:

Transport founder Svein Roar Grande and Stein Lie, who have built up their business by selling quilts and fur coats.

Melgaard believes that over time he was exploited by the businessmen, as a result of extensive drug abuse – to the point that in an agreement in 2020 he wrote off a large amount of art objects.

The artist has now filed a lawsuit against Grande and Lie.

– I want to control my own works. And I want them back, says Bjarne Melgaard.

NEW YORK: Bjarne Melgaard with Svein Roar Grande on the left and Stein Lie in 2014. At this time, Melgaard worked closely with the businessmen. Photo: Thomas Nilsson / VG

– High threshold

– It is permissible to enter into bad agreements, and there is generally a high threshold for professional parties to claim that an agreement is so unreasonable that it should be set aside, believes lawyer Stine Helén Pettersen in Bing Hodneland.

She is one of three lawyers VG has asked to assess the agreement between Melgaard and the businessmen. The decisive question for the validity of the agreement will probably be whether it is “reasonable” in the eyes of the court, according to the lawyers.

– The limit is, for example, in a case where you have pressured someone into a particularly vulnerable position, or in other ways “tricked” someone, explains lawyer Lise K. Digernes from the law firm Bull.

On a general basis, it will therefore be important what position Bjarne Melgaard was in when the agreement was negotiated and entered into, she believes.

– As well as whether the investor group deliberately took advantage of Melgaard’s possible pressured situation beyond what can be considered reasonable. This could be about Melgaard’s physical and mental health, as well as his financial situation, says the lawyer.

LAWYER: Stine Helén Pettersen at Bing Hodneland is an expert in copyright, trademark law, media law and contracts. Photo: Bing Hodneland

Pushwagner comparison

Grande and Lie deny that they pressured Melgaard, and believe instead that it was he who was the instigator of the collaboration.

Over the course of a decade, the artist and the businessmen entered into dozens of agreements for art in exchange for money.

– It started with me giving him my little finger, then he takes my hand, and now I’m so far up there that I don’t know where I am, says businessman Stein Lie.

Lawyer Jon Wessel-Aas believes that the agreement in question “is not very professionally designed”. He draws a comparison to the Pushwagner case from 2009.

– It was an agreement in which the artist Pushwagner, while he was very low mentally, had transferred all rights to his works. It was set aside as invalid, explains Wessel-Aas.

ARTIST: Hariton Pushwagner when he turned 75 in 2015 and had an anniversary exhibition at Soli Brug Gallery in Østfold. The artist died in 2018. Photo: Frode Hansen / VG

The Intellectual Property Act

The Pushwagner case, however, involved art worth around 15 million, compared to potentially over 200 million in Melgaard’s case.

Wessel-Aas refers to a new provision in the Copyright Act which will ensure “reasonable remuneration” for, for example, artists who transfer the right to dispose of their works to others.

– This will be able to come into play here. If the value of what Melgaard has handed over is obviously much higher than what he owed the investor group, and the agreement was entered into under circumstances where Melgaard was not at his “full five”, there may be grounds for setting aside all or parts of the agreement, explains Wessel-Aas.

WILL SUE: Bjarne Melgaard has notified a lawsuit against his two former partners, Svein Roar Grande and Stein Lie. Photo: Espen Rasmussen / VG

– Unclear

– The agreement bears the stamp of having been drawn up by parties who are untrained in writing agreements and it is unclear on several points, says lawyer Pettersen.

Lisa K. Digernes in Bull agrees.

– This may not be an agreement that has been negotiated by the parties’ representatives, Digernes points out.

– One of the most interesting things about this agreement is what it says nothing about, notes Pettersen.

The aim of the agreement, which was concluded on 23 November 2020, was to settle unresolved issues surrounding a large number of previous agreements, primarily while Melgaard worked in New York until 2017.

– But the agreement is silent on which sums must be advanced under the original agreements and the annex that must accompany the agreement has not been presented to us. Without having information about the specific sums to be advanced, the amounts the agreement sets against each other are unclear, she believes.

PAINTING: This painting from 2015 is one of the works that Bjarne Melgaard’s former collaborators are currently working on.

Disagree about the amount in millions

All parties agree that Lie and Grande invested large sums in Melgaard’s business until 2016, and received art in return.

Lie and Grande themselves claim that there is talk of over NOK 100 million. They have not presented supporting documentation for this to Melgaard, his lawyers or to VG.

Melgaard believes he was tricked into thinking he owed the businessmen a very large sum of money.

The businessmen say today that it was real that Melgaard owed them around NOK 15 million when the agreement was signed to settle in 2020 – once and for all.

According to the agreement, Grande and Lie were to cover a debt of NOK five million for Melgaard, in return for taking over paintings, sculptures and a large number of prints.

The estimated value of the art is between NOK 200 and 300 million, according to art experts.

LAWYER: Lisa K. Digernes of the Bull law firm is an expert in intellectual property rights and contract law. Photo: Bull

– Went in with many millions

Lie and Grande deny that they have deceived Melgaard.

– We have entered with many millions more than what we have received in art. Most of what has been sold has gone to new Melgaard projects and a smaller part to repayment of short-term financing, says Stein Lie.

The artist canceled the agreement the very next day in November 2020 and believes he was also under the influence of drugs when he signed.

This is rejected by Svein Roar Grande, who sat on the other side of the table and believes that Melgaard was ready.

It is often an easier assessment for a court to set aside an agreement because of the circumstances in which it was entered into, than to set it aside because of its content, according to lawyer Pettersen.

– If there is concrete evidence that one party to the agreement was sufficiently intoxicated and the other party was aware of it and took advantage of it, it is a more tangible assessment that is often more likely to decide a case on, she explains.

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Published: 17.09.23 at 21:01

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2023-09-17 19:01:52


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