Jan 3, 2006, 15:36 GMT
Oslo - Norwegian shipping magnate Fred. Olsen will sell 12 works by artist Edvard Munch next month in London, reports said Tuesday.
The scheduled February 7 sale at auction house Sotheby's is likely the largest sale of Munch works from the same collection since World War II, the Norwegian business daily Dagens Naeringsliv said.
'I grew up with Munch on the walls and have seen these paintings since I was a little boy,' 77-year-old Olsen told the newspaper.
'I know them by heart. Over time it has become more difficult to have them on the walls. It is a matter of security and tax,' he said, adding that an old dispute with his brother Petter also contributed to the decision.
The wealthy Olsen family has a large collection of Munch works. Many of the paintings were collected by Olsen's father, shipping owner Thomas Olsen.
He bought them in 1938 from an Oslo art dealer who in turn bought the works from Nazi Germany that sold off confiscated art from German museums considered to be 'degenerate'.
The income was used by the Hitler regime to finance military expenditures.
Professor Odd Bjorn Fure, head of the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities, said in a 2002 interview with Dagens Naeringsliv that the current owners of the Munch works should consider returning them to the museums in Germany.
Fure said it was detestable that people should 'profit from art confiscated by a murderous regime'.
The Munch works up for sale were estimated to be worth 100 million kroner (14 million dollars).
One of the paintings for sale is the 1904 'Embrace on the Beach'. The Olsen family owns 34 works - including a pastel version of 'The Scream' - and 28 oil paintings by Munch.
Fred. Olsen said he hoped a foreign museum would buy the works 'so that as many people as possible could see them', noting that Norway already has two museums with large Munch collections that have difficulty with security and space.
In August 2004, another version of 'The Scream' was stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo.
Norwegian-born Munch, who lived from 1863 to 1944, is considered one of Europe's most important expressionist painters.
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