Sex scandal within Nobels intensifies
SWEDEN: The head of the committee that awards the Nobel Prize for literature quit yesterday amid a growing furore over a sex scandal and claims that winners’ names were systematically leaked.
Sara Danius announced her decision after a three-hour meeting of the Swedish Academy. This followed an unprecedented rebuke from the foundation that oversees all five Nobel Prizes, and a plea from the Swedish king for action to end the crisis.
Danius, 56, a Swedish literature historian, said the turmoil at the academy had ‘‘already affected the Nobel Prize quite severely’’.
The infighting and intrigue at the 232-year old Swedish Academy burst into the open last week when three of its 18 members resigned over a member whose husband is embroiled in a sex scandal and has been accused of leaking winners’ names. The scandal was already worsening yesterday amid claims that academy members had ignored complaints about sexual harassment dating back more than 20 years because they did not seem ‘‘important’’.
Swedes were also offered a glimpse of the poisonous atmosphere inside the organisation, when the trio who had tended their resignations were branded by another academy member as ‘‘a clique of sore losers’’.
The allegations of sexual abuse centre on Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of Katarina Frostenson, a Swedish poet and long-serving academy member. He has been accused of sexually assaulting 18 women, including female academy members and the wives and daughters of their male colleagues. Arnault denies the claims.
The academy was founded by King Gustaf III in 1786 to advance Swedish language and literature. It has awarded the literature prize since 1901, after being asked to choose a global laureate annually by the industrialist Alfred Nobel. It is one of five Nobel Prizes he created, including for chemistry, physics, medicine and peace. The peace prize is handed out by a Norwegian committee.
‘‘It is inevitable that a severe crisis at a prize-awarding institution also harms the Nobel Prize’s reputation,’’ the foundation board said. ‘‘We can see that the trust in the Swedish Academy has been seriously damaged. It is not yet clear how this situation may tarnish the Nobel Prize’s reputation.’’
It called for rapid progress in three areas to restore the good name of the Nobel Prize for literature and its awarding body.
‘‘Confidentiality and conflicts of interest’’ should be ‘‘handled in accordance with both the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Foundation’s regulations’’, it said, over allegations that Arnault, who runs a cultural centre in Stockholm with his wife, leaked the name of the literature prize winner on seven occasions, including that of Bob Dylan in 2016.
The academy was urged to ‘‘ensure that the work on this year’s Nobel Prize in literature can be carried out in a credible manner’’ and ‘‘that suspected criminal acts are referred to and handled by law enforcement agencies’’.
Police have said they are investigating some sexual harassment claims made against Arnault, but said others cannot be investigated because they took place long ago.
The scandal grew when evidence emerged that textile artist Anna-Karin Bylund complained in 1996 to Sture Allen, the academy’s chairman, about sexual harassment by Arnault. Allen, still a member of the academy, has said he did not act on it because ‘‘the contents of the letter did not seem important’’.
The three members who resigned last week after failing in a secret vote of the academy’s 18 members to force out Frostenson were called a ‘‘clique of sore losers’’ by Horace Engdahl, a board member who supports Arnault. Engdahl said it was wrong to make the dispute public. ‘‘These sorts of indiscretions are more damaging to the academy than a Nobel Prize decision that has leaked out a few days too soon.’’
Ebba Witt-Brattstrom, Engdahl’s former wife and a wellknown literature professor, then criticised him and called the academy ‘‘incredibly patriarchal’’.
Members are appointed for life, and even those who offer their resignation cannot technically be replaced until they die.
The board concluded: ‘‘It takes a long time to restore damaged confidence. The members of the Swedish Academy must put their mission ahead of individual interests and restore confidence in the academy’s important work with the Nobel Prize in literature.’’ – The Times