Maurice Estève

Arild Wahlström was a Norwegian industrialist and CEO, later becoming the chairman of Sande Tresliperi A/S and Sande Paper Mill A/S. Alongside his business and sports interests, Wahlström had a significant passion for art and art collecting, which he shared with his wife Aasta. In their home in Holmenkollen, the couple built an extensive collection of significant Norwegian and international works. Wahlström traveled extensively and often combined his trips with visits to art galleries and artists. He developed close relationships with several artists and met figures such as Poliakoff, Henry Moore, Soulanges, Manessier, Singier, and many more. Three times, he was invited to visit Picasso in southern France with the gallery owner Kahnweiler, but each time, business matters intervened, causing significant disappointment. Wahlström's deep interest in Picasso's graphic work had awakened after the war during a business trip to Paris in 1946. On a small side street, the Wahlström couple discovered an image of a woman's head in an art shop. "It was so beautiful - we were both immediately captivated by it. It was something extraordinary." This incident led to intense collecting and resulted in one of the world's largest private collections of Picasso graphics, with over 1000 graphic prints. In 1982, Arild Wahlström donated nearly 500 of these prints, including the entire Vollard Suite, to the National Gallery in Oslo