Expert Council recommended to remove murals and demolish buildings that have suffered from explosions arranged by Anders Breivik in July, 2011. This solution is financially most profitable.
At the same time, other experts urge to keep Picasso murals at all costs in the same place as the artist created them specifically for these buildings.
In the early 1970s Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar with whom Picasso worked for 17 years, has decorated interior walls and H and Y blocks of governmental complex of buildings in Oslo representing Picasso works of the late 1950s and 1960s – “The Beach”, “The Seagull,” “Fishermen”, “Satyr and Faun”.
According to the survey conducted by VG, views of the Norwegian capital residents on how to deal with murals are split: 39.5% support the idea of demolition, while 34.3% are in favor of the preservation of damaged buildings.
The Norwegian art community also has no consensus on the issue: some people name the murals “brutal” and “ugly”, while the others, Jørn Holm, the head of the Directorate of Cultural Heritage in particular, say that the buildings have historical and artistic value and cannot be destroyed .
The right to the murals belong to Picasso’s family. According to the lawyer representing them appeal concerning the issue have not been received yet.
