Scandal hits Nobel prize academy
SWEDEN: The body that awards the Nobel Prize for literature has been rocked by three resignations over a sex scandal that has now widened, with claims that winners’ names were regularly leaked.
Jean-claude Arnault, the husband of Katarina Frostenson, a celebrated Swedish poet and a member of the Swedish Academy, has been accused of sexually assaulting 18 women, including other academy members, their wives and daughters. He has denied the charges.
King Carl XVI Gustav, the academy’s patron, expressed his sadness yesterday as the dispute boiled over into the worst crisis in its 232-year history. He said the resignations were ‘‘a sad development that I hope will be solved’’.
Frostenson, 65, one of the country’s foremost poets, was elected to membership of the academy in 1992. Her husband was accused last November of using his position as head of an influential arts venue, the Forum in Stockholm, to abuse numerous women. As a result, the academy cut its annual funding to the Forum, which is co-owned by Arnault and Frostenson.
The academy’s 18 members, drawn from Sweden’s literary elite and appointed for life, then held an unprecedented secret ballot on a motion to remove Frostenson. The vote went her way, leading three of the members to announce their resignations last weekend. Technically, they cannot leave, and those who have resigned in the past have been replaced only when they died.
The academy has found itself caught up in further controversy after the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, which first published the allegations against Arnault, published claims yesterday that he had leaked the names of the literature prize winners seven times, including that of 2016 laureate Bob Dylan. The academy has long prided itself on its top-secret selection process.
Bjorn Wiman, the culture editor of Dagens Nyheter, said: ‘‘It is difficult to see how the academy will be able to move on after this. The institution is in ruins.’’
Another member, Sara Stridsberg, is also said to be considering resigning and, with two others already on long-term leave for reasons not connected with the latest scandal, the academy is on the verge of institutional paralysis.
– The Times