Strange case of a fake Ibsen play that has gripped Scandinavia

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jan/01/ibsen-forgery-claims-norway


Gemma Arterton and Stephen Dillane perform in Ibsen’s The Master Builder at the Almeida in London.  Photograph: Tristram Kenton

It's the case that has absorbed Scandinavia's elite artistic circles and tested some of Norway's finest literary experts.

Over the next few months, investigators from the Norwegian police's economic crimes unit will be combing the market for supposed possessions and letters relating to the playwright Henrik Ibsen, and the Nobel-winning novelist – and Nazi sympathiser – Knut Hamsun as part of investigations into an alleged scam that exploited the nation's interest in its most celebrated authors.

More than a dozen documents are alleged to have been forged by Geir Ove Kvalheim, a Norwegian scriptwriter and actor, who has been charged and is due go on trial in April.

The alleged fraud was only revealed when Kvalheim sensationally claimed to have discovered fragments of a previously unknown Ibsen play, The Sun God, a find that would have changed Norwegian literary history.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Now that was a good read...thanks for posting this story

nt

[xchrom]

2. i found it fascinating.

forgery is a crime i think of as being -- i don't know -- out of date?

and this is so intricate and involves so many people.

also i'm a fan of ibsen --

[riverwalker]

3. shades of Clifford Irving

and the fake Howard Hughes bio.

[xchrom]

4. I know, right? & that was how many years ago? Nt