Niels Onstad

Niels Onstad (1909–1978), a Norwegian shipping agent, owner of tanker ships and art collector. In 1940 he moved to the US, where he worked for Nortraship, an organization administering the Norwegian commercial fleet outside of the areas controlled by Germans, supporting the government in exile and the Allies with his one thousand ships. He managed his company from the US until 1955, when he came back to Norway. Onstad, whose mother was a painter, knew Edvard Munch personally and was interested with visual arts from his early years. In the 1960s, together with his wife, Sonja, Henie, he donated to the state his collection, together with the building and a fund for the development of the Art Centre on Høvikodden in Bærum. The Centre was officially opened in 1968, and Nordheim played a part in organizing a recording studio there and composed a number of pieces on the order of the Centre.