Everyone has a passion project that they would really like to work on for years. In the case of the CEO of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund Nicolai Tangen, that is his art collection.
It’s not only any collection. Tangen, who oversees $1.6 trillion in investments at Norges Bank Investment Management, has greater than 5,000 artworks that he has housed in a century-old grain silo within the small town of Kristiansand.
The exhibition, called Kristiansand Kunstsilo, features various Norwegian artists and is valued at $46 million. However, it just isn’t only intended to supply an insight into Tangen’s art interests. Its goal is to draw more tourists to the town and someday compete with Norway’s other museums.
“I think they are developing an interest in Nordic art,” Tangen says said Bloomberg, based on international visitors. “I hope it should increase competition within the museum world in Norway. I’d like it if it was like just a little annoying mosquito that just puts on the very best exhibitions so that folks in Oslo say, ‘Man, what is going on on on this city?'”
The CEO of Norges Bank has been collecting art for nearly 35 years. When selecting his art, Tangen follows the recommendation he gives to the fund’s traders – think Contrarian. Instead of shopping for newer art that comes in the marketplace, he buys works which are greater than 50 years old to see how much value they preserve over time.
The art silo once housed 15,000 tons of grain and is now the gallery with the world’s most comprehensive collection of Nordic modern art.
“It should always be a museum collection, meaning you want to have the most important artists and the most important works,” Tangen said.
Tangen’s podcasting side gig
CEOs are sometimes considered too busy for anything but business. But her interests outside of labor have been making headlines these days. Think of David Solomon’s love of Goldman Sachs DJing or Mark Zuckerberg’s love of mixed martial arts.
Like his colleagues, Tangen also has many interests.
As if managing the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and collecting modern art weren’t enough to occupy his time, Tangen has one other side job working with high-ranking business leaders – he hosts a weekly podcast with them.
He interviews among the world’s most influential CEOs, from Tesla’s Elon Musk to Santander’s Ana Botin, covering personal and skilled topics. Titled In good companythe podcast was Tangen’s pandemic baby.
By serving listeners “a little bit of their secret sauce,” the top of Norges Bank desires to make the fund as transparent as possible, he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Last month.
Tangen’s love of art could also be just one other technique to connect with people and introduce them to Norwegian culture.
