In the Press

Vor wenigen Tagen in Weimar, in der Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek, die kein Geringerer als Goethe Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts nach seinem Ideal neu konzipieren ließ. Da liegt vor uns ein Rarissimum der Goethe-Erstausgaben: „Das Römische Carneval“ von 1789. Dieses Buch war das erste, was Goethe überhaupt über seine Erlebnisse in Italien, wo er sich von 1786 bis 1788 aufgehalten hatte, an die Öffentlichkeit kommen ließ. Gedruckt natürlich nicht wie sonst damals in Deutschland üblich in Fraktur, sondern in italiengerechter Antiqua und versehen mit 20 Kupferstichtafeln, die Römer in Karnevalsverkleidungen zeigen, wie Goethe sie beobachtet hatte – jedes dieser Bilder handkoloriert. Schöner kann man Bücher schwerlich machen, und deshalb wird uns dieses in Weimar vorgeführt.

Es ist eines von seinerzeit 318 hergestellten Exemplaren, die sofort vergriffen waren, und nachdem Goethe sein eigenes an die Bibliothek von Kassel abgegeben hatte, sollte es ihm nie mehr gelingen, ein neues für sich aufzutreiben, aber zum Glück lag da ja eines gleich um die Ecke in der Anna-Amalia. Heute repräsentiert es einen Wert im hohen fünfstelligen Bereich; derzeit wird nämlich ein anderes Exemplar in Los Angeles für 90.000 Dollar angeboten.

Und damit ist dieses „Römische Carneval“ nicht einmal das teuerste Buch im ersten Katalog einer amerikanischen Antiquariatsgalerie, die sich den Namen „Atelier Zweig“ gegeben hat (in deutscher Schreibweise, denn damit soll Stefan Zweig geehrt werden, der ja auch ein großer Bibliophiler war). Die Spitzenposition unter den 24 Positionen darin nimmt mit einem Preis von 200.000 Dollar Goethes Dissertation aus dem Jahr 1771 ein, die gerade einmal einen Bogen umfasst, also sechzehn Seiten.

Mit so wenig Text ergatterte der Straßburger Promovent damals seinen Doktortitel, nachdem Goethes eigentliche Arbeit, die sich dem Kirchenrecht widmete, wegen Gottlosigkeit abgelehnt worden war. Die juristische Fakultät gestattete ihm ersatzweise eine Disputation von 56 lateinischen Rechtsgrundsätzen, und die sind es, die dann schließlich gedruckt wurden (natürlich auch in Antiqua), während die ursprüngliche Doktorarbeit als verloren gilt. Von der Ausgabe der „Positionis juris“ sind immerhin zehn Exemplare auf uns gekommen.

Das nun in Los Angeles angebotene ist das letzte in Privatbesitz; es stammt, wie fast das ganze Katalogangebot, aus der Sammlung von Heribert Tenschert, dem seit vielen Jahrzehnten bedeutendsten Antiquar des deutschen Sprachraums, der über das neue Atelier Zweig den amerikanischen Markt vor Ort erreichen will. Die als unaufgeschnittener Bogen erhaltene Goethe-Dissertation (was sie natürlich noch rarer macht, aber auch zeigt, dass seit 1771 wenig Interesse am dünnen Inhalt des Buchs bestanden hat) haben wir schon vor Jahren in Tenscherts Antiquariat, der Bibermühle im schweizerischen Ramsen, vorgeführt bekommen, und sie ist, wie in Weimar zu erfahren ist, auch der Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek zum Kauf angeboten worden, in deren Beständen diese Goethe-Publikation fehlt. Nun wird sie womöglich über den Atlantik gehen.

„Four Centuries of Goethe“ lautet der Katalogtitel, wobei diese vier Jahrhunderte schon mehr als 150 Jahre vor Goethes Geburt einsetzen: mit einem Konvolut von drei in den Jahren 1589, 1596 und 1597 erschienenen Volksbüchern, die zu den ersten Quellen des „Faust“-Stoffs gehören, der Goethe dann sein Leben lang beschäftigen sollte. Bei zweien dieser Bücher handelt es sich sogar um die einzigen derzeit noch bekannten Exemplare ihrer jeweiligen Ausgaben.

Im mittleren 19. Jahrhundert hatte sie der Jurist Heinrich Apel zusammengetragen, aus dessen Rittergut Ermlitz (nahe bei Leipzig) sie dann 1945 im Zuge der berüchtigten „Schlossbergungen“ in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone beschlagnahmt wurden; 1994 wurden sie der Familie zurückgegeben. Die ließ die Bücher 2001 in München versteigern; heute sollen sie zusammen 195.000 Dollar kosten.

Mit den genannten drei Positionen sind somit bereits fast eine halbe Million Dollar zusammen; das Gesamtangebot des Katalogs summiert sich auf rund 900.000. Denn der Rest ist allemal spektakulär genug: Erstausgaben des „Werther“ (für immerhin auch noch 60.000 Dollar; die ebenfalls angebotene Zweitauflage kostet knapp ein Sechstel) oder des „Faust“ – und zwar des Faust-Fragments von 1790 (36.000), des ersten Teils von 1808 (21.000) und des erst posthum erschienenen zweiten von 1833 (24.000). Außerdem der Romane „Die Wahlverwandtschaften“ (6500) und „Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre“ (4500). Nicht zu vergessen ein Exemplar der vollständigen „Farbenlehre“, also die zweibändige Textausgabe mit separatem Tafelteil, der die begleitenden Farbabbildungen enthielt. Für dieses Buch, auf das Goethe so stolz war wie auf kein anderes, sind 38.500 Dollar angesetzt.

Abgerundet wird der Katalog durch acht Pressedrucke aus dem frühen 20. Jahrhundert, von denen gleich vier der englischen Doves Press entstammen, darunter mit der Kompilation „Auserlesene Lieder“ die letzte Publikation dieses von T. J. Coben-Sandersons betriebenen Liebhaberverlags überhaupt – erschienen 1916, also ein britisches Buch mit deutschem Text mitten im Ersten Weltkrieg (55.500). Und wenn jemand alles will, was zum „Faust“ aus Goethes Hand bekannt ist, der kann auch noch den erst 1887 bekanntgewordenen Text des „Urfaust“ erwerben: in einer Ausgabe der Bremer Presse (die ungeachtet ihres Namens in Bad Tölz angesiedelt war) aus dem Jahr 1920, zu haben für 2500 Dollar. Im Ganzen sprechen wir wohl vom bisher spektakulärsten Goethe-Buchangebot.

Andreas Platthaus

A few days ago in Weimar, in the Anna Amalia Library, which no less a figure than Goethe had redesigned to his own ideal at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Before us lies a rarissimum among the Goethe first editions: Das Römische Carneval (The Roman Carnival) of 1789. This book was the first thing Goethe ever allowed to reach the public about his experiences in Italy, where he had stayed from 1786 to 1788. Printed, of course, not in Fraktur, as was otherwise customary in Germany at the time, but in a roman type befitting Italy, and furnished with 20 copperplate engravings showing Romans in carnival costume as Goethe had observed them – every one of these plates hand-colored. Books can hardly be made more beautiful, and that is why this one is shown to us in Weimar.

It is one of the 318 copies produced at the time, which sold out at once, and after Goethe had given his own to the library in Kassel he never again managed to obtain a new one for himself – happily, though, there was one just around the corner, in the Anna Amalia. Today it represents a value in the high five figures; another copy is currently being offered in Los Angeles for 90,000 dollars.

And that makes this Römische Carneval not even the most expensive book in the first catalog of an American antiquarian gallery that has given itself the name „Atelier Zweig“ (in the German spelling, for it is meant to honor Stefan Zweig, who was, after all, also a great bibliophile). The top position among the 24 items in it is taken, at a price of 200,000 dollars, by Goethe’s dissertation of 1771, which comprises just one sheet, that is, sixteen pages.

With so little text the Strasbourg candidate secured his doctorate at the time, after Goethe’s actual thesis, which was devoted to canon law, had been rejected as godless. In its place the law faculty permitted him a disputation on 56 Latin legal propositions, and it is these that were finally printed (in roman type as well, of course), while the original dissertation is held to be lost. Of the edition of the Positionis juris, the positions of law, at least ten copies have come down to us.

The one now offered in Los Angeles is the last in private hands; like almost the whole of the catalog, it comes from the collection of Heribert Tenschert, for many decades the most important antiquarian bookseller of the German-speaking world, who by way of the new Atelier Zweig intends to reach the American market on the spot. The Goethe dissertation, preserved as an uncut sheet (which of course makes it rarer still, but also shows that since 1771 there has been little interest in the book’s thin content), was shown to us years ago at Tenschert’s antiquarian house, the Bibermühle in Ramsen, Switzerland, and it has also, as one learns in Weimar, been offered for sale to the Anna Amalia Library, in whose holdings this Goethe publication is missing. Now it may well cross the Atlantic.

„Four Centuries of Goethe“ is the title of the catalog, though these four centuries begin more than 150 years before Goethe’s birth: with a group of three popular chapbooks, Volksbücher, published in 1589, 1596 and 1597, which are among the earliest sources of the „Faust“ material that was then to occupy Goethe all his life. Two of these books are even the only copies of their respective editions known at present.

In the middle of the nineteenth century they were brought together by the jurist Heinrich Apel, from whose manor of Ermlitz (near Leipzig) they were then confiscated in 1945 in the course of the notorious „castle clearances“, the Schlossbergungen, in the Soviet occupation zone; in 1994 they were returned to the family, which had the books auctioned in Munich in 2001; today they are to cost 195,000 dollars together.

With the three items named, almost half a million dollars have thus already been reached; the catalog’s total offering comes to around 900,000. For the rest is spectacular enough in every case: first editions of „Werther“, The Sorrows of Young Werther (for a still considerable 60,000 dollars; the second printing, likewise on offer, costs barely a sixth of that) or of „Faust“ – namely the Faust fragment of 1790 (36,000), the first part of 1808 (21,000) and the second, published only posthumously, of 1833 (24,000). Besides these, the novels „Die Wahlverwandtschaften“, Elective Affinities (6500), and „Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre“, Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years (4500). Not to be forgotten is a copy of the complete „Farbenlehre“, the Theory of Colors, that is, the two-volume text edition with the separate plate volume that contained the accompanying color illustrations. For this book, of which Goethe was prouder than of any other, 38,500 dollars are asked.

The catalog is rounded off by eight private-press books from the early twentieth century, no fewer than four of them from the English Doves Press, among them, with the compilation „Auserlesene Lieder“, Selected Songs, the very last publication of that connoisseurs’ press run by T. J. Coben-Sanderson – published in 1916, a British book with a German text in the middle of the First World War (55,500). And anyone who wants everything known from Goethe’s hand relating to the „Faust“ can also acquire the text of the „Urfaust“, which came to light only in 1887: in an edition of the Bremer Presse (which, its name notwithstanding, was based in Bad Tölz) from the year 1920, to be had for 2500 dollars. All in all, we are probably speaking of the most spectacular offering of Goethe books to date.

Andreas Platthaus

Sjeldne bøker: – Hvis noen hadde sagt til meg for to år siden at jeg snart skulle drive business med livspartneren min i Los Angeles, hadde jeg ikke trodd på det, sier Oda Victoria Reitan (34), som er på en snarvisitt hjemme i Trondheim.

Hun snakker om «Atelier Zweig» som hun driver sammen med samboeren Elian Pres-Gurwits i Los Angeles. Og som har spesialisert seg på kjøp og salg av sjeldne og verdifulle bøker, med kunder over hele verden.

Det startet med en felles lidenskap for kunst og litteratur.

Som jing og jang

– Vi er veldig ulike, men i bokbusinessen vi har startet, kommer det godt med. Han har et konseptuelt blikk, mens jeg med min kunsthistoriske bakgrunn, har blikk for det estetiske.

Bokjakten har allerede rukket å ta dem verden rundt. Mer om det senere, for det er langt fra tilfeldig at de havnet der de er.

Reitan har en bachelor i kunsthistorie fra NTNU og en master fra Universitetet i Oslo. I tillegg har hun utøvende kunst som del av en bachelor i kunst og kunstformidling fra Oslo Met.

Men blikket har lenge vært rettet utenfor Trondheim og Norge. Første gang hun flyttet til Wien var rett etter videregående, for å gå på språkskole. Siden har hun bodd der i flere perioder.

– Mormoren min var fra Graz, så jeg føler meg veldig nært knyttet til Østerrike. Og Wien er Europas mest undervurderte by, synes jeg.

– Hvorfor?

– Fordi de fortsatt nærmest lever som i keisertiden der. Det finnes et kjent sitat, ofte tilegnet komponisten Gustav Mahler, men også mange andre, om at dersom verden går under, så flytter jeg til Wien. For der skjer alt 50 år senere.

Og det er nettopp dette som fascinerer henne ved byen, kulturhistorien som fortsatt lever i beste velgående. Rundt 1900 var Wien et sted der vitenskap, kunst og kultur møttes og smeltet sammen, og noe som fortsatt er tydelig.

Farter over alt

– Ulempen er selvsagt at det kan være vanskelig å løsrive seg fra alt dette for å komme seg videre. De lever litt på fordums prakt.

Selv har hun aldri blitt værende på ett sted, men fartet mellom Norge, Østerrike, Tyskland og Sveits, og har også bodd i Roma. Nå er det Los Angeles som er hjemme.

Som datter av den folkekjære kunstneren Elling Reitan har hun nærmest vokst opp i et atelier. Hun var en av dem som aldri sluttet å tegne og male, og parallelt med studier og andre ting har hun hele tiden jobbet som billedkunstner.

– Jeg husker jeg solgte mitt første store maleri den siste dagen på mitt første studie. Jeg har alltid hatt lett tilgang til materialer gjennom atelieret til pappa, og har vokst opp med å se at det går an å bygge seg et veldig fint liv gjennom kunsten. Uten å bli en kunstnermyte som ekskluderer familie og venner for å få det til. Men mye jobbing, det er det.

– Hva har faren din sagt om retningen du valgte?

– Han sa tidlig at han ikke ville oppfordre meg til å bli kunstner, for han visste jo hva det innebar. Og det har nok heller ikke vært et veldig bevisst valg fra min side. Å male var bare noe jeg gjorde. Samtidig er kunsten en fantastisk måte å møte mennesker på.

Maler på oppdrag

Den tradisjonelle modellen, der en kunstner jobber et år eller to fram mot en bestemt utstilling, har aldri vært helt hennes vei. Reitan maler på bestilling, gjør samarbeidsprosjekter og har også tatt kunsten med seg opp på scenen.

Blant annet for Porsche.

– Jeg ble hyret inn til et lanseringsevent der jeg sto og malte på scenen mens det hele foregikk. Bildene ble hengt rett opp på veggen og solgt umiddelbart etterpå.

Kjæresten Elian Pres-Gurwits, opprinnelig fra Tyskland, møtte hun første gang i Wien i 2012. De fant tonen gjennom en felles lidenskap for kunst og litteratur, men det var først for fire år siden de for alvor ble et par og senere forlovet seg.

Det var også han som introduserte henne for det hun i dag bruker mesteparten av tiden på, kjøp og salg av sjeldne bøker. De som bare finnes i noen få eksemplarer og som samlere og spesielt interesserte kan være villige til å betale millioner for.

– Elian er forretningsmann, men moren hans drev et kunstgalleri, så vi er begge vokst opp med kunst. Han har en sjelden kombinasjon av businesshode og et hjerte for kunsten og intellektuelle ideer, sier hun.

Det virkelig store spranget inn i bokverdenen kom for et drøyt år siden. Da møtte de Heribert Tenschert, en av verdens største samlere av sjeldne bøker. I dag samarbeider de med ham og representerer ham i USA, med base i leiligheten sin ved stranden i Los Angeles.

– Helt vilt

– Heribert har en samling på nærmere 300 000 bøker, så med ham åpnet det seg en verden vi ikke ante fantes, og med skatter i et omfang som er helt vilt. Det er praktutgaver som er kunstverk i seg selv.

For Reitan ble ikke spranget fra billedkunsten til de sjeldne bøkene så stort som man kanskje skulle tro.

– Dette er kunst. For meg er det egentlig ikke noe skille mellom billedkunst og bøker. Bøker er kanskje den beste manifestasjonen av kulturen vår, samtidig som de kan være utrolig vakre.

– Hva er det som gjør en bok virkelig verdifull?

– Det er mye som spiller inn, hvor sjelden den er, hvor godt den er bevart og hvem som har eid den tidligere.

Som detektivarbeid

– Hvor finner dere slike bøker?

– Mye er i privat eie, så det blir nesten som detektivarbeid. Vi må finne ut hvem som kan ha slike bøker liggende.

– Hva er den dyreste boken du har solgt?

– I det øverste sjiktet er det egentlig ikke noe tak. Christie’s solgte nylig en ekstremt sjelden førsteutgave av Emily Brontës «Wuthering Heights» fra 1847. Den gikk for over én million pund. Det sier litt om hvilke summer vi snakker om

Jakten på både bøker og kjøpere tar dem verden rundt. De reiser på internasjonale bokmesser, oppsøker samlere og bygger nettverk. Andre bøker dukker opp på de store auksjonene hos Christie’s og Sotheby’s.

– Hvilke norske bøker er ettertraktet?

– Sagalitteratur. Og polfarerbøker. Fridtjof Nansen er veldig populær i USA, samlere elsker ham. Hele polfarertradisjonen treffer noe i amerikanerne. Ibsen er også populær.

At hun og forloveden har slått seg ned akkurat i Los Angeles, langt fra de europeiske samlingene og bokskattene de jobber med, er heller ingen tilfeldighet.

– Vi synes det er gøy å bygge bro mellom kontinentene. All historien og kulturen som finnes i for eksempel Wien, kan også føles litt tyngende, nesten som en hemsko av og til. I LA er det en veldig smittende energi. Byen er innovativ og kreativ.

Intens jobbing

– Hvor mye Hollywood er det i livet ditt?

– Vi sitter mest inne og jobber, sier hun, humrende, og legger til at byen også gir tilgang til mennesker og miljøer hun neppe ville møtt andre steder.

– Du har mulighet til å møte utrolig mange interessante mennesker der, men da må du gjøre noe interessant selv også. Det er jo en by der mange kommer og går. Og det er litt av vår greie, vi jobber med noe som er ekstremt tradisjonsbundet i en veldig innovativ by.

For Reitan handler de sjeldne bøkene til syvende og sist om mer enn samlere, auksjoner og svimlende prislapper. Hun er opptatt av kunsten og litteraturen som bærere av en felles kulturarv, og av at gamle bøker ikke bare skal bli stående som historiske objekter.

– Bøkene vi selger representerer humanitet og vår intellektuelle kulturarv. Og derfor er det så viktig at vi tar dem med oss videre inn i morgendagen.

– Hører ikke slike bøker egentlig hjemme i offentlige biblioteker, slik at de blir tilgjengelige for alle?

– Der er det delte meninger. Jeg tenker at eierskap uansett bare er midlertidig, og at det viktigste er hvordan bøkene blir forvaltet. Det forventes også at mennesker med store samlinger, enten det er kunst eller bøker, deler dem gjennom utlån til museer og andre institusjoner.

– Men er ikke muligheten for å ta vare på dem større i et bibliotek enn hos en privat samler?

– Ikke nødvendigvis. Institusjonene har ofte enorme samlinger og begrenset kapasitet til å forvalte og formidle alt. Mye blir aldri vist, men forblir på lager. Private samlere kan ha en helt spesiell lidenskap, både for å eie og for å dele det de har med andre.

– Får du tid til å male oppi alt dette?

– Ja, det gjør jeg. Litteraturen har alltid vært en inspirasjon for meg, så nå får jeg egentlig knyttet de to verdenene enda tettere sammen, bøkene og billedkunsten.

Hun smiler.

Ingen Work-life balance

– Pappa spør meg ofte om akkurat det. Om det blir tid til å male.

Foreløpig er både hjem og arbeidsplass den samme leiligheten de leier rett ved stranden i Los Angeles. Skillet mellom jobb og fritid er heller ikke alltid så lett å få øye på.

– Work-life balance eksisterer ikke i USA, sier hun og ler.

– Hva gjør du om ti år?

– Hadde du spurt meg for et par år siden, hadde jeg jo ikke ant at jeg skulle gjøre det jeg gjør nå. Jeg liker tanken på ikke å vite helt hvor livet tar deg, fordi det stadig er i utvikling. Men kunsten og bøkene vil være der. Målet er fortsatt å bygge et liv på ord og farger, bøker og kunst.

Annemona Grann

Rare books: “If someone had told me two years ago that I would soon be running a business with my life partner in Los Angeles, I would not have believed it,” says Oda Victoria Reitan (34), who is home in Trondheim for a quick visit.

She is talking about Atelier Zweig, which she runs together with her partner Elian Pres-Gurwits in Los Angeles. And which specializes in buying and selling rare and valuable books, with customers all over the world.

It began with a shared passion for art and literature.

Like yin and yang

“We are very different, but in the book business we have started, that comes in handy. He has a conceptual eye, while I, with my background in art history, have an eye for the aesthetic.”

The hunt for books has already taken them around the world. More on that later, for it is far from chance that they ended up where they are.

Reitan holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from NTNU and a master’s from the University of Oslo. She has also studied studio art as part of a bachelor’s degree in art and art mediation from Oslo Met.

But her gaze has long been directed beyond Trondheim and Norway. The first time she moved to Vienna was straight after high school, to attend a language school. She has since lived there for several periods.

“My maternal grandmother was from Graz, so I feel very closely connected to Austria. And Vienna is Europe’s most underrated city, in my view.”

Why?

“Because they still live there almost as in imperial times. There is a well-known saying, often attributed to the composer Gustav Mahler but to many others as well, that if the world comes to an end, I will move to Vienna. Because there everything happens fifty years later.”

And it is precisely this that fascinates her about the city, the cultural history that is still alive and well. Around 1900 Vienna was a place where science, art and culture met and merged, and that is still evident.

Always on the move

“The drawback, of course, is that it can be hard to break free of all this and move on. They live a little on past glories.”

She herself has never stayed in one place, moving between Norway, Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and she has also lived in Rome. Now Los Angeles is home.

As the daughter of the much-loved artist Elling Reitan, she more or less grew up in a studio. She was one of those who never stopped drawing and painting, and alongside her studies and other pursuits she has worked as a visual artist the whole time.

“I remember selling my first large painting on the last day of my first degree. I have always had easy access to materials through Dad’s studio, and I grew up seeing that it is possible to build a very good life through art. Without becoming the mythical artist who shuts out family and friends to make it happen. But it takes a lot of work, it does.”

What has your father said about the direction you chose?

“He said early on that he would not encourage me to become an artist, because he knew, of course, what that involved. And it has probably not been a very deliberate choice on my part either. Painting was just something I did. At the same time, art is a wonderful way of meeting people.”

Painting on commission

The traditional model, in which an artist works for a year or two toward a particular exhibition, has never quite been her path. Reitan paints on commission, takes on collaborative projects and has also taken her art onto the stage.

For Porsche, among others.

“I was hired for a launch event where I stood on stage painting while the whole thing was going on. The paintings went up on the wall right away and were sold immediately afterward.”

She first met her partner Elian Pres-Gurwits, originally from Germany, in Vienna in 2012. They hit it off through a shared passion for art and literature, but it was only four years ago that they became a couple in earnest, and later got engaged.

It was also he who introduced her to what she now spends most of her time on, the buying and selling of rare books. The kind that exist in only a few copies, and for which collectors and devoted enthusiasts may be willing to pay millions.

“Elian is a businessman, but his mother ran an art gallery, so we both grew up with art. He has a rare combination of a head for business and a heart for art and intellectual ideas,” she says.

The really big leap into the world of books came a little over a year ago. That was when they met Heribert Tenschert, one of the world’s largest collectors of rare books. Today they work with him and represent him in the United States, based in their apartment by the beach in Los Angeles.

“Absolutely wild”

“Heribert has a collection of nearly 300,000 books, so with him a world opened up that we had no idea existed, with treasures on a scale that is absolutely wild. These are magnificent editions that are works of art in themselves.”

For Reitan, the leap from the visual arts to rare books was not as great as one might think.

“This is art. For me there is really no dividing line between visual art and books. Books are perhaps the finest manifestation of our culture, and at the same time they can be incredibly beautiful.”

What is it that makes a book truly valuable?

“A great deal comes into play — how rare it is, how well it has been preserved and who has owned it before.”

Like detective work

Where do you find books like these?

“Much of it is in private hands, so it becomes almost like detective work. We have to find out who might have books like that lying around.”

What is the most expensive book you have sold?

“At the very top there is really no ceiling. Christie’s recently sold an extremely rare first edition of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights from 1847. It went for more than one million pounds. That tells you something about the sums we are talking about.”

The hunt for both books and buyers takes them around the world. They travel to international book fairs, seek out collectors and build networks. Other books turn up at the major auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

Which Norwegian books are sought after?

“Saga literature. And polar-exploration books. Fridtjof Nansen is very popular in the US, collectors love him. The whole polar-exploration tradition strikes a chord with Americans. Ibsen is popular too.”

Nor is it a coincidence that she and her fiancé have settled in Los Angeles of all places, far from the European collections and book treasures they work with.

“We enjoy building bridges between the continents. All the history and culture that exists in Vienna, for example, can also feel a little burdensome, almost like a drag at times. In LA there is a very infectious energy. The city is innovative and creative.”

Intense work

How much Hollywood is there in your life?

“We mostly sit indoors and work,” she says, chuckling, and adds that the city also gives her access to people and circles she would hardly have met anywhere else.

“You have the chance to meet an incredible number of interesting people there, but then you have to be doing something interesting yourself. It is, after all, a city where many people come and go. And that is a bit of our thing — we work with something extremely bound by tradition in a very innovative city.”

For Reitan, rare books are ultimately about more than collectors, auctions and dizzying price tags. She cares about art and literature as bearers of a shared cultural heritage, and about old books not simply being left to stand as historical objects.

“The books we sell represent humanity and our intellectual and cultural heritage. And that is why it is so important that we carry them onward with us into tomorrow.”

Don’t books like these really belong in public libraries, so that they are accessible to everyone?

“Opinions differ on that. I think ownership is only ever temporary, and that what matters most is how the books are cared for. People with large collections, whether of art or of books, are also expected to share them through loans to museums and other institutions.”

But isn’t there a better chance of preserving them in a library than with a private collector?

“Not necessarily. Institutions often have enormous collections and limited capacity to care for and present everything. Much is never shown and stays in storage. Private collectors can have a very particular passion, both for owning and for sharing what they have with others.”

Do you find time to paint in the midst of all this?

“Yes, I do. Literature has always been an inspiration to me, so now I actually get to bind the two worlds even more closely together, books and visual art.”

She smiles.

No work-life balance

“Dad often asks me exactly that. Whether there is time to paint.”

For now, home and workplace are one and the same, the apartment they rent right by the beach in Los Angeles. Nor is the line between work and free time always easy to make out.

“Work-life balance does not exist in the US,” she says, laughing.

What will you be doing in ten years?

“Had you asked me a couple of years ago, I would have had no idea that I would be doing what I do now. I like the thought of not quite knowing where life takes you, because it is constantly evolving. But art and books will be there. The goal is still to build a life on words and colors, books and art.”

Annemona Grann