To lurk in the corners.

 http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/exhib/lenta/exhibitions_2013/johannes_sweinsson_kjarval/

 There is a saying in Icelandic “að fara með veggjum’’, translation, “to go by the walls”, “to lurk in the corners”. Meaning, to be so ashamed of one self, as not wanting to be seen.

 Seems to me, that’s what is going on in Iceland right now, nobody wants to mention this show of Kjarval’s paintings in Saint-Petersburg, because if they do, they have to consider how my family was treated.

 The Icelandic paper “Morgunblaðið”, for decades the biggest paper in Iceland, has as of today not had one story on this show, this the paper that ones upon a time constantly ran stories on my grandfather. Its former editor Matthías Jóhannsen even wrote several books on Kjarval and its present editor, Mr. Davíð Oddsson, said when he was the Mayor of the City of Reykjavík, “that the City owned Kjarval”. If I said Mr. Oddsson as prime minister was close to the decision to put Kjarval on a bank note, I would not be far off.

 That Mr. Oddsson made it on a list of ten, done by The Financial Times, over persons most responsible for ruining the world’s financial system a whole other story.

 Somewhat the same at the State-Radio, so far only a short story in the evening news, no interviews, no nothing, this in a country obsessed with how the world sees it.

 Today, in a country of 300.000 people, it is not news anymore when a native artist has a show in Saint Petersburg by special invitation of Russia’s President. Ones upon a time, my grandfather was considered the most known Icelander abroad and maybe one of the reasons Icelanders felt they could be an independent nation.

 I am convinced the reason for this scant coverage is literally shame and fear. The elite knows this could blow up in their face. It was he power-elite of Iceland that robbed my grandfather, not the nation and one day the public is just not going stand for this anymore. It may take years, but justice will win in the end. I am going to post this article of mine, one more time.

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Kjarval vs. Iceland and alleged corruption at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

 My name is Ingimundur Kjarval, born and raised in Iceland but today I am a farmer in New York State. My grandfather was the Icelandic painter Jóhannes Kjarval and a show of his paintings is going to be at the Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg by special invitation of President Putin, starting this September 26th. It is to be opened by the President of Iceland.

 Regrettably some of the works at the show were very likely taken out of his studio by the City of Reykjavik. More than 5000 pieces were removed 11 weeks before my grandfather, then 83 years old, was put in a mental hospital were he died a couple of years later.

 No documents were made at the time about this alleged gift, only a supposed secret verbal declaration by my grandfather to the then mayor of Reykjavik, Mr. Geir Hallgrímsson (later Prime Minister of Iceland). Almost 14 years later in 1982 when an investigation was made, a city employee claimed in a statement he had been present. Then 37 years later, the employee’s son said in a testimony he had also been present. The son had kept a diary those years but no mention in the diary of his presence or in the investigation from 1982. One fact, when Mr. Geir Hallgrímsson was asked in 1982, he claimed not to remember. From the report “Says he is convinced this was a gift but doesn’t remember how it happened.”

 Another fact, in 1968, the same year my grandfather’s studio was emptied, a show of his older paintings was put together by his son and old friends, by then he had stopped painting. The proceeds were to go to the construction of the museum that now has his name. At least one quarter of the nation came to see the show and in an interview done for the Icelandic television at the show, Kjarval was specifically asked if his paintings were to be in the museum. In strong words that can not be misunderstood, he told the interviewer his paintings were not to be there, that the museum was to be for Icelandic painters in general. Something very important to my grandfather and the reason he gave funds to have the museum built. In his mind, to replace “Listamannaskálinn” “The Painter’s hall” his show was in. This hall or house owned by “The Icelandic Painters Association” was to be torn down. It was the City not my grandfather who gave the museum the name “Kjarvalstaðir”  or Kjarval´s place and made the City employee mentioned above the head of the Museum.

 The employee’s son is the issue here and his connection to The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In 2005 I sued the City of Reykjavik in my mother’s name, she has since passed away. The case went to the District Court of Reykjavik where we lost. Then to the Supreme Court of Iceland where we lost again, a story in itself, about corruption and an almost national conspiracy against my family in a country claiming to have a western justice system. Even though Iceland is a country with a population of only 300.000, it is a full a member of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

 My grandfather’s life’s work was taken out of his studio in 1968. The son mentioned earlier, Mr. Gudmundur Alfredsson then went on to study law and is now a law professor, human rights his specialty. He is married to Ineta Ziemele from Lithuania, a judge at the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.

 When we lost the case in Iceland, I took it to Strasbourg where it was dismissed by one jugde without an explanation, Ms. Päivi Hirvelä from Finland. Our claim is that Mr. Gudmundur Alfredsson, a crucial and deciding witness in the case is married to a judge at the same court and that the women bound to know at least of each other and the marriage. Also the justice systems of both Finland and Lithuania have their heritage very much from Russia and Finland assisted Lithuania after its break from Russia with its justice system. Our claim, that if only one judge can dismiss a case (a new practice at the court), then the judge should have been from another part of Europe to minimize any possibility of conflict of interest. Further more, Mr. Alfredsson is known at the court for his work in human rights and his work even used there.

 A letter sent to the court about these issues was never answered. And to show how closely knit this community of judges is, Mr. Alfredsson very recently applied for a judgeship at the court and was nominated by the government of Iceland. Mr. Alfredsson has never held a judgeship as far as I know.

 One thing I have a hard time accepting and keeps me fighting on, this dismissal from the court in Strasbourg without any explanation what so ever. I had been told by my attorneys in Iceland we had grounds to go to Strasbourg, one of the grounds Mr. Alfredsson’s connection to the City of Reykjavik. I don’t know what the norm is at the court, but this is not right in my mind. Qualified attorneys prepared the case and sent it to Strasbourg, I should have the right to know why it was dismissed.

 The thought that Mr. Alfredsson’s nomination is payback for his testimony, that he was present, when Kjarval supposedly verbally and secretly gave the contents of his studio to the City of Reykjavik might well be paranoia on my part, something us Icelanders suffer from after the financial crash of Iceland, the reason for the crash mostly corruption at every level.

Any Icelander involved with this show should be highly embarrassed by how my family was robbed and that they are not, maybe a window into our character as a nation, heritage from when we plundered Europe as Vikings and still proud of it. As a matter of fact, the Icelandic “banksters” who cleaned out savers in Europe with their “Icesave” scam, were in Iceland proudly called the “útrásar” Vikings, hard to translate but means to go abroad as the original Vikings did.

 Iceland was for centuries until the Second World War, a colony of Denmark, Iceland’s justice system based on that inheritance. But a small country like Iceland it seems, is incapable of upholding a justice system. At least in our case, the judges appointed by the same powers who looted my grandfather’s studio, delivering a miscarriage of justice.

 Every informed Icelander is a aware of this injustice and that maybe the reason this show at the Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg has not been mentioned when this is written, in the Icelandic press as far as I know or on the website for “Kjarvalstaðir”, the City Museum dedicated to my grandfather. Icelanders after all ashamed as they should be, their most cherished artist and national treasure (an Icelandic bank note is dedicated to him) was in his old age, robbed by the authorities.

 I sent this article to Mr. Hafþór Yngvason, the present head of the Museum named after my grandfather. His only response, that this had been decided in court. He knows my grandfather is to have given the contents of his studio verbally and secretly with out any documentation and 83 days later declared by doctors, mentally incompetent because of old age and locked up in a mental hospital. A mental hospital because he was who he was, anybody else would have been put into a nursing home.

Yes older people can deteriorate in 83 days, but nobody can conclude he was competent to give away his life’s work verbally and secretly without talking to his children. Lets’ not forget the fact that the only witnesses to this supposed act was the City’s employee and his son. The only known declaration from the alleged receiver of the supposed gift, then the most powerful person in Iceland, that he didn’t remember what happened. Another fact, the contents of the studio were then hidden away for 17 years or until Kjarval’s son, my father, had passed away, then moved to the Museum where they are stored today.

  I took this all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Now my resources are depleted and writing these articles in the hope somebody takes notice the only thing I can do. As his grandson I am of course proud of this show in Saint Petersburg, my grandfather was a great painter and the world should see his work. At the same time I am ashamed as an Icelander that my nation finds it proper to put up a show of looted artwork abroad

 When the City of Reykjavik so shamefully emptied my grandfather’s studio in secret and left mostly trash for my family to clean up, it also took our legacy as a family for their use. It is sad that Kjarval, who was so important to the nation of Iceland, today belongs to the powers that be. This show instigated by President Putin and agreed to by Icelandic authorities is done for political purposes. 

 Ingimundur Kjarval Delhi New York. USA. August 31, 2013

Another letter to Politiken and Berlinske.

Delhi NY USA Sept. 16. 2013

 To whom this may concern.

 I have been sending your paper a story I think you are obligated to cover, but no response. I hereby I send it again by certified letter and I will keep on sending you until I get an answer. You can get more information by contacting me at XXXXXXXXXX  or my attorney in Iceland at XXXXXXXX  If you need to talk to my attorney I can give you his phone number, but have to ask him first.

 Is there anything in what I write you don’t believe? At this point I only want you to confirm these two judges at the Human Right Court in Strasburg knew each other when one of them dismissed the case. They must have and Päivi Hirvelä from Finland know that Ms. Ineta Ziemele from Lithuania is married to Mr. Gudmundur Alfredsson.

 It is obviously a complication Mr. Alfredsson, the deciding witness in the case, is connected to the Court. Let’s not forget the grounds for going to Strasburg was Mr. Alfredsson’s connection to the City of Reykjavik.

 If like I claim something went wrong at the Court in Strasbourg it must be a story you have to cover, anything else has to be corruption in my mind. I accept that if you can get a satisfactory explanation, I will have to bark up another tree. I am not a journalist, difficult for me to get the right information. When you call from a major paper, you will get respect I will not get. I was able to have my attorney in Iceland write a letter to the court that was never answered. I am sending that too.

 Maybe you say this doesn’t concern you, something I should keep in Iceland. The European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg is a European court and this issue connects directly to the Scandinavian Countries, Denmark part of them. Also a big part of my family lives in Denmark, but maybe Human rights is passé these days.

 The lawyers in Iceland I had working for me have to live there and survive, I can not expect them to fall on their swords for me even though I get very frustrated sometimes. It was extremely difficult to have them write this letter and as you can see it was done at arms length. Their explanation, letters like these are done this way. No answer from the court what so ever, no response. Am I supposed to sue the court, what can I do? I have no resources to bring this case any further.

 Both my grandfather’s children were born in Denmark to a Danish mother, my father  and aunt. My father moved to Iceland as a young man to live with his father where he met my mother. They later moved to Denmark when I was a young man, fled because the situation around my grandfather became unbearable for my father. My grandfather by then a national treasure of Iceland and the family thought to be in the way. My aunt married a journalist at the Land og Folk if I am right, I know they fled to Sweden during the war. I am telling you this so you understand my family has roots in Denmark. Two of my sisters live in Denmark presently.

 The least you can do is to respond and tell me you have read what I sent you. And if you don’t think this is a story for you to cover, then you have to tell me WHY.

 

Respectfully Ingimundur Kjarval

 -----------------------------------------------------

Here is the letter sent to the Human rights Court in Strasburg:

European Court of Human Rights

67075 Strasbourg Cedex,

France

 

                                                                                                                                       Reykjavik, 11 October 2010

 

Subject: Case No. 41787/08: Kjarval vs. Iceland.

 

The undersigned attorney represented the interests of Ingimundar Kjarval in case no. 41787/08 Kjarval vs. Iceland, which was based on his request submitted to the Court on 27 August 2008.

In a letter dated 2 February 2010 the undersigned was advised that the European Court of Human Rights had concluded that no violation of the European Convention on Human Rights had been established or plausibly shown to have been committed, and that there would be no further substantive consideration of the case. It was made clear that this conclusion was final,  that no information would be forthcoming about its rationale, and that it was not open for discussion. Also, it was noted that Judge P. Hirvela from Finland had authored the Court‘s conclusion.

My client has requested that I submit certain observations to the Court on its procedures in the case. These pertain to its handling by a sole judge as well as possible bias on the part of Judge P. Hirvela.

My client considered that his rights had been violated by Icelandic authorities in the manner detailed in his submission to the Court and that at issue were important material interests. Since he does not have information about the rationale of Judge P. Hirvela‘s rejection of his claims, he cannot address it.

However, my client wants to raise serious questions about the procedures and arrangements whereby a sole judge was designated to decide such a case. If the Court considers that to be a reasonable course of action, he submits that care must be taken to avoid the appearance of possible bias on the part of the judge so designated.

Case no. 41787/08 concerned a court case initiated by the estate of painter Johannes Sveinsson Kjarval (my client’s grandfather) against the City of Reykjavik in a dispute over ownership rights to thousands of paintings as well as personal items. The City of Reykjavik based its claim to ownership rights on a verbal gift declaration said to have been made by the artist on 7 November 1968 with respect to the paintings and personal items in question.

The Supreme Court of Iceland‘s judgement in the case showed that the Court accepted as decisive proof  of the artist‘s alleged verbal gift declaration evidence in the form of testimony and personal diary entries of international law specialist Gudmundur Alfredsson who claimed to have been present with his father when Johannes Sveinsson Kjarval is supposed to have made the above verbal gift declaration to the then-mayor of Reykjavik. The other three individuals said to have been present were long since dead when the case came before the Icelandic courts.

Information obtained by my client reveals that Gudmundur Alfredsson is married to Ineta Ziemele, a Lithuanian judge at the European Court of Human Rights. My client considers it reasonable to assume a significant degree of professional cooperation between Court judges from Finland and Lithuania. Also, that it stands to reason that such cooperation may entail personal interaction between them and, as the case may be, their respective spouses. My client does not have any direct information about interaction between Judge P. Hirvela, on the one hand, and Judge Ineta Ziemele and Gudmundur Alfredsson, on the other hand, but considers that doubts may be raised as to Judge P. Hirvela‘s qualification to serve as sole judge in his case. My client notes specifically that the case which he brought to the Court had been of significant personal importance for Gudmundur Alfredsson and his family.

In light of the above, my client requests that the handling of his case by the Court be reviewed in order to determine whether it conformed with the rules of the Court and that there be appropriate redress if such is found not to have been the case. 

 

                                                                                                                        Respectfully,                     

                                                                                                                        for Ingimundur Kjarval

 

                                                                                                                        _______________________________                                                                                                                          XXXXXXXXXXX,

Supreme Court Attorney 

 

 

Hello, anybody home?

Hello, anybody home or is your paper run by a computer? I have been trying to get some response from you but no answer.

 If it counts for anything, now many years ago I had a letter published in one of the Copenhagen papers (Politiken I think). You were going to build a nuclear plant on an island just outside the City and I pointed out it might not be such a bright idea. That you are not glowing in the dark today should count for something.

 And if that isn’t enough, my great-grandfather was in the Royal Guard. According to my sister, he the one on the horse up front, the conductor himself (is the conductor still on a horse?). He was even sent to the front in the last war Denmark had with Germany. Mads Merrild.

 But seriously, if like I claim, the justice system of Iceland is failing through corruption, Denmark as Iceland’s master nation for centuries must hold some responsibility in the matter. Your paper in the second best country in the whole world has to consider the article I wrote and discuss it with me. I will put in a blog here or part of it, by maybe the most prominent attorney in Iceland, Mr. Sigurður G. Guðjónsson. He wrote this just a couple of days ago, my translation:

 Good to bike in the nice fall weather, temperature 7 degrees (44.6 F) and dry. On my way this evening I thought that soon five years have passed since the economy collapsed. Since then the inner timbers of society have been failing, the justice system done for, the courts like free-stall barns, the Supreme Court, in practice four courts. In the District Court of Reykjavik, the judges come and go so fast the same case is often dealt with by two or three judges. A political court was established and a prime minister found guilty.  An office of special prosecutor established, with the predetermined  task of putting all the guilt on the bankers……..

 He goes on, his take the justice system has been falling apart since the crash, mine the crash was because the justice system had failed already, couldn’t keep Icelanders on the straight and narrow because of political meddling, Iceland slowly turning into a banana republic. That Mr. Gudjonsson is defending these bankers as an attorney another story, explains his writings somewhat.

 

 I claim in my letter or article this corruption even reached all the way to Strasbourg, that somehow Icelandic interests were able to have my case dismissed there. You have to admit, it is strange, the crucial and deciding witness in the case, Mr. Alfredsson is married to one of the judges at the court and a fellow female judge from a neighboring country then singlehandedly is able to dismiss the case without any explanation what so ever. You will also have to admit it to be odd, this same witness then turns around and applies for a judgeship at the court and is nominated by Iceland. I accept that the truth often is stranger than fiction and this could all be seen as a string of coincidences.

 According to my information, the judges from the Scandinavian and Baltic countries are somewhat separated from the rest of the judges, have their offices in a separate hall of some sort, but of course this is something you can check out. If this is so, one has to assume these two women know each other quite well and then Ms. Päivi Hirvelä should have excused her self from the case, or in other words, corruption.

 It is discouraging dealing with you journalists who act as if there is no corruption in this world, as if we the public just suffer from paranoia busy making up conspiracy theories, your main duty as editors to be gatekeepers and keep us naysayers out of your pages. Here I am directly quoting two different editors of major newspapers in Iceland, Mr. Reynir Traustason and retired Mr. Matthias Johannesson. We all know there is corruption and your duty as journalists to try to ferret it out, that’s your job for crying out loud.

  This goes especially for corruption at the highest level when law enforcement, as in Iceland, is controlled by corrupt politicians as Mr. Sigurður G. Guðjónsson writes about in his blog.  And be forewarned, if you try to ask almost anybody in Iceland about this case, the national conspiracy against my family is for real, very few will tell you the truth.

 On lighter issues, many years ago my parents-in-law were traveling in Denmark with their baby daughter, my future wife. My American father-in-law was interviewed by a Danish journalist, probably about jazz or painting, the only thing he was interested in talking about and shark-attack stories.

 When the story came out in the paper (lets hope it wasn’t yours), my-father-in-law was made to say all kind of anti-American propaganda he would never ever have said, the journalist figuring he didn’t speak Danish and it would never come back to him.

 But he was married to my Icelandic mother-in-law who spoke Danish, she studied in Denmark and in my opinion, her painting more Danish than many realize. And to throw some more weight around, not mine but my mother’s-in-law, she eventually, now a few years back, received the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Cultural Award, handed to her by the King of Sweden at a ceremony here in New York and made fun of by Victor Borge at the occasion.

 Borge had the whole assembly repeat her strange Icelandic name Louísa Matthíasdóttir. Borge of course also made fun of the King and the Swedes in general, you Danes having a hard time accepting the Swedes are number one. My theory he went after my mother-in-law because he was just another bitter Dane, not able to forget the breakup and how it happened. Let’s not forget the Icelandic books, my wife just reminded me.

 And to end at the beginning, my great grandfather, the one who fought the Germans, played at a dancehall in Copenhagen with Borge’s father for extra money . People would pay for the dances, not exactly sure how it worked, before my time.

 Ingimundur Kjarval

 Ps. Through the years I have had some of these writings published in Iceland and been forced to pay for the space. There I have been much blunter. Defamation laws in Iceland are quit strict, but so far nobody has decided to sue me, they know silence is their only defense, that if any of this goes back into court, it will all blow up in their faces

 Ps. I sent the original article to newspapers in Germany, Holland, Britain and Scandinavia, the response scant so far, one from Holland and one from Norway, that’s about it. From now on, I will concentrate on Danish papers the Berlinske Tidende and the Politiken. As I wrote, Iceland has to be Denmark’s responsibility if it is becoming a “failed country”, it’s justice system braking down. I will also send anything I write to you in a certified letter and put on the web. Your silence makes you part of this corruption.

 Ps. And you can be assured, there are many more bizarre facts to this case, here I am just trying to focus on what happened in Strasbourg. 

Kjarval vs. Iceland and alleged corruption at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

My name is Ingimundur Kjarval, born and raised in Iceland but today I am a farmer in New York State. My grandfather was the Icelandic painter Jóhannes Kjarval and a show of his paintings is going to be at the Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg by special invitation of President Putin, starting this September 26th. It is to be opened by the President of Iceland.

 Regrettably some of the works at the show were very likely taken out of his studio by the City of Reykjavik. More than 5000 pieces were removed 11 weeks before my grandfather, then 83 years old, was put in a mental hospital were he died a couple of years later.

 No documents were made at the time about this alleged gift, only a supposed secret verbal declaration by my grandfather to the then mayor of Reykjavik, Mr. Geir Hallgrímsson (later Prime Minister of Iceland). Almost 14 years later in 1982 when an investigation was made, a city employee claimed in a statement he had been present. Then 37 years later, the employee’s son said in a testimony he had also been present. The son had kept a diary those years but no mention in the diary of his presence or in the investigation from 1982. One fact, when Mr. Geir Hallgrímsson was asked in 1982, he claimed not to remember. From the report “Says he is convinced this was a gift but doesn’t remember how it happened.”

 Another fact, in 1968, the same year my grandfather’s studio was emptied, a show of his older paintings was put together by his son and old friends, by then he had stopped painting. The proceeds were to go to the construction of the museum that now has his name. At least one quarter of the nation came to see the show and in an interview done for the Icelandic television at the show, Kjarval was specifically asked if his paintings were to be in the museum. In strong words that can not be misunderstood, he told the interviewer his paintings were not to be there, that the museum was to be for Icelandic painters in general. Something very important to my grandfather and the reason he gave funds to have the museum built. In his mind, to replace “Listamannaskálinn” “The Painter’s hall” his show was in. This hall or house owned by “The Icelandic Painters Association” was to be torn down. It was the City not my grandfather who gave the museum the name “Kjarvalstaðir”  or Kjarval´s place and made the City employee mentioned above the head of the Museum.

 The employee’s son is the issue here and his connection to The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In 2005 I sued the City of Reykjavik in my mother’s name, she has since passed away. The case went to the District Court of Reykjavik where we lost. Then to the Supreme Court of Iceland where we lost again, a story in itself, about corruption and an almost national conspiracy against my family in a country claiming to have a western justice system. Even though Iceland is a country with a population of only 300.000, it is a full a member of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

 My grandfather’s life’s work was taken out of his studio in 1968. The son mentioned earlier, Mr. Gudmundur Alfredsson then went on to study law and is now a law professor, human rights his specialty. He is married to Ineta Ziemele from Lithuania, a judge at the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.

 When we lost the case in Iceland, I took it to Strasbourg where it was dismissed by one jugde without an explanation, Ms. Päivi Hirvelä from Finland. Our claim is that Mr. Gudmundur Alfredsson, a crucial and deciding witness in the case is married to a judge at the same court and that the women bound to know at least of each other and the marriage. Also the justice systems of both Finland and Lithuania have their heritage very much from Russia and Finland assisted Lithuania after its break from Russia with its justice system. Our claim, that if only one judge can dismiss a case (a new practice at the court), then the judge should have been from another part of Europe to minimize any possibility of conflict of interest. Further more, Mr. Alfredsson is known at the court for his work in human rights and his work even used there.

 A letter sent to the court about these issues was never answered. And to show how closely knit this community of judges is, Mr. Alfredsson very recently applied for a judgeship at the court and was nominated by the government of Iceland. Mr. Alfredsson has never held a judgeship as far as I know.

 One thing I have a hard time accepting and keeps me fighting on, this dismissal from the court in Strasbourg without any explanation what so ever. I had been told by my attorneys in Iceland we had grounds to go to Strasbourg, one of the grounds Mr. Alfredsson’s connection to the City of Reykjavik. I don’t know what the norm is at the court, but this is not right in my mind. Qualified attorneys prepared the case and sent it to Strasbourg, I should have the right to know why it was dismissed.

 The thought that Mr. Alfredsson’s nomination is payback for his testimony, that he was present, when Kjarval supposedly verbally and secretly gave the contents of his studio to the City of Reykjavik might well be paranoia on my part, something us Icelanders suffer from after the financial crash of Iceland, the reason for the crash mostly corruption at every level.

 Any Icelander involved with this show should be highly embarrassed by how my family was robbed and that they are not, maybe a window into our character as a nation, heritage from when we plundered Europe as Vikings and still proud of it. As a matter of fact, the Icelandic “banksters” who cleaned out savers in Europe with their “Icesave” scam, were in Iceland proudly called the “útrásar” Vikings, hard to translate but means to go abroad as the original Vikings did.

 Iceland was for centuries until the Second World War, a colony of Denmark, Iceland’s justice system based on that inheritance. But a small country like Iceland it seems, is incapable of upholding a justice system. At least in our case, the judges appointed by the same powers who looted my grandfather’s studio, delivering a miscarriage of justice.

 Every informed Icelander is a aware of this injustice and that maybe the reason this show at the Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg has not been mentioned when this is written, in the Icelandic press as far as I know or on the website for “Kjarvalstaðir”, the City Museum dedicated to my grandfather. Icelanders after all ashamed as they should be, their most cherished artist and national treasure (an Icelandic bank note is dedicated to him) was in his old age, robbed by the authorities.

 I sent this article to Mr. Hafþór Yngvason, the present head of the Museum named after my grandfather. His only response, that this had been decided in court. He knows my grandfather is to have given the contents of his studio verbally and secretly with out any documentation and 83 days later declared by doctors, mentally incompetent because of old age and locked up in a mental hospital. A mental hospital because he was who he was, anybody else would have been put into a nursing home.

 Yes older people can deteriorate in 83 days, but nobody can conclude he was competent to give away his life’s work verbally and secretly without talking to his children. Lets’ not forget the fact that the only witnesses to this supposed act was the City’s employee and his son. The only known declaration from the alleged receiver of the supposed gift, then the most powerful person in Iceland, that he didn’t remember what happened. Another fact, the contents of the studio were then hidden away for 17 years or until Kjarval’s son, my father, had passed away, then moved to the Museum where they are stored today.

  I took this all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Now my resources are depleted and writing these articles in the hope somebody takes notice the only thing I can do. As his grandson I am of course proud of this show in Saint Petersburg, my grandfather was a great painter and the world should see his work. At the same time I am ashamed as an Icelander that my nation finds it proper to put up a show of looted artwork abroad

 When the City of Reykjavik so shamefully emptied my grandfather’s studio in secret and left mostly trash for my family to clean up, it also took our legacy as a family for their use. It is sad that Kjarval, who was so important to the nation of Iceland, today belongs to the powers that be. This show instigated by President Putin and agreed to by Icelandic authorities is done for political purposes. 

 Ingimundur Kjarval Delhi New York. USA. August 31, 2013