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