Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tion, as well as the jubilant day of 9 May 1945 when peace was declared. Artefacts include
underground newspapers, numerous maps and photographs and, most intriguingly, a set of
denturesthatbelongedtoaNorwegianprisonerofwarinPoland,andwerewiredtoreceive
radio broadcasts.
Astrup Fearnley Museum
MODERN ART
Offline map
Google map
(Astrup Fearnley Museet;
Click here
;
www.afmuseet.no
;
Dronningens gate 4; admission free; 11am-5pm Tue, Wed & Fri, 11am-7pm Thu,
noon-5pm Sat & Sun)
Withitsoftensteamycontent,thismuseumcertainlybegstheques-
tion, 'What is art?' Don't miss the gilded ceramic sculpture
Michael Jackson and Bubbles,
by Jeff Koons.
THE WORLD'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS
PRIZE
Most Nobel prizes - physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics - are
awarded every October in Stockholm, but the most prestigious prize of all, the Peace
Prize, is reserved for Oslo. In his will in 1895, Alfred Nobel, the Swedish founder of
the prize and the inventor of dynamite, instructed that the interest on his vast fortune
be awarded each year 'to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred
the greatest benefit on mankind'.
It is unclear why Nobel chose Norway to administer the Peace Prize, but whatever
the reason, it is a committee of five Norwegians, appointed for six-year terms by the
Norwegian Storting (parliament), that chooses the winner each year. Their meetings,
held in a room of the Nobel Institute that is decorated with the pictures of winners
past, from Mother Teresa (1979) to Mikhail Gorbachev (1990) and Al Gore (2007),
are closed-door affairs presided over by the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Com-
mittee, professor Ole Mjøs. Meetings are also attended by the institute's director,
Geir Lundestad. Appointed director in 1990, Lundestad filled us in on some prize
history and discussed his pet project - the new
Nobel Peace Center
(
Click here
)
.
What's the difference between being nominated and short-listed for the Peace
Prize?
Anyone can be nominated, from President George Bush to Madonna, and this
often causes a huge outcry, but there is a big difference between being nominated and
