Artist Says He Signed Contract Drunk: 'I Ruined My Own Life'

Most recently, Bjarne Melgaard could be seen at Paris Fashion Week, but the provocative Norwegian artist is gearing up for a new battle that has nothing to do with haute couture: On Tuesday, a court in Norway will hear Melgaard's lawsuit against Svein Roar Grande and Stein Lie, two investors he says made him sign away his rights as a visual artist to pay off his considerable debts to them, effectively crippling his artistic future, reports the New York Times.

"My biggest mistake is the same one that most artists make," the 57-year-old says. "You would do just about anything for your art." "Anything" in this case, according to Melgaard, was signing a document that absolved him of millions he owed Grande and Lie—including $10 million they'd given him between 2008 and 2020 to support his craft, as well as $500,000 in unpaid rent for his studio and other funds. All told, Melgaard's complaint says he was in debt to the investors for nearly $16 million, which is why he agreed to sign the "Main Agreement" in 2020, a document he believed would wipe out his debt to the two.

Now, however, Melgaard says he was drunk when he signed the contract, and that it features onerous terms that basically forced him to give up ownership to "hundreds of paintings and thousands of prints," per the Times, as well as his rights in producing future sculptures and to veto sales of his own work. "If you see the contract that I signed, you would realize that no person with a clear mind would sign it. ... I ruined my own life," he tells the paper, which notes that "the relationship between Melgaard and his investors recalls a largely defunct practice of patronage whose heyday was in the Italian Renaissance."

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Grande and Lie, who don't have a lot of experience in the art market, tell the Times that Melgaard, called a "chaos machine" by one gallery owner, had "two decades of reckless and uncontrolled spending" and is trying to get out of the contract "to evade a significant debt burden." "Bjarne Melgaard is a fantastic artist but with limited abilities to convey facts," they note. Melgaard, who says he's now sober and married, has admitted to suffering from drug addiction, and the Times notes he's had staff issues as well. But, he says, now "I wish that I could move on." More here. (More artist stories.)