It started as a pile of rotting reindeer heads dumped outside a court. The Norwegian government had ordered a mass cull of herds owned by Norway’s indigenous Sámi people, and Máret Ánne Sara wanted judges hearing a case against the demand, brought by her herder brother, to experience the grisly consequences.
But after a formal opening ceremony presided over by Norway’s Queen Sonja on Friday, Sara’s skulls will make up the first art installation seen by visitors on Saturday as they pass through the doors of what is a new palace of the Nordic art establishment in Oslo – a vast museum of art, architecture and design, known as the National Museum.
