Everyone has a passion project they’d be happy to spend years working on. In the case of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s CEO Nicolai Tangen, that’s his art collection.
It isn’t just any collection. Tangen, who is responsible for $1.6 trillion worth of investments at Norges Bank Investment Management, has over 5,000 artworks, which he’s chosen to house in a century-old grain silo located in the southern town of Kristiansand.
The display, called Kristiansand Kunstsilo, features various Norwegian artists and is worth $46 million, but it’s not meant to be just a window into Tangen’s art interests. He aims to draw more tourists to the city and eventually compete with Norway’s other museums someday.
“I think they develop an interest for Nordic art,” Tangen told Bloomberg, referring to international visitors. “I hope it will increase the competition in the museum world in Norway. I would love this to be like a small irritating mosquito, which just puts on the best exhibitions, so people in Oslo are like, ‘Geez, what’s going on in this town?’”
The Norges Bank CEO has been collecting art for close to 35 years. In picking his art, Tangen follows the advice he gives the fund’s traders—think contrarian. Instead of buying newer art that enters the market, he buys works over 50 years old to see their store of value over time.
Kunstsilo, once home to 15,000 tons of grain, is now the gallery with the world’s comprehensive collection of Nordic modern art.
“It was always meant to be a museum-like collection, which means that you want to have the most important artists and you want to have the most important work,” Tangen said.
Tangen’s podcasting side-gig
CEOs are often thought to be too busy for anything but business. But their interests outside work have made headlines in recent times. Think of Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon’s love for DJ-ing or Mark Zuckerberg’s penchant for mixed martial arts.
Like his counterparts, Tangen also has many interests.
If managing the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and collecting modern art weren’t enough to occupy his time, Tangen has another side gig involving top business executives—he hosts a weekly podcast with them.
He interviews some of the most influential CEOs of the world, from Tesla’s Elon Musk to Santander’s Ana Botin, covering personal and professional topics. Titled In Good Company, the podcast was Tangen’s pandemic baby.
By serving listeners with “a bit of their secret sauce,” the Norges Bank head aims to make the fund as transparent as can be, he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last month.
Tangen’s love for art may be just another way to connect with people and bring Norwegian culture to them.
