Christian Ringnes (born 3 March 1954) is a Norwegian businessman and art collector whose family founded Norway’s now largest brewery

Ringnes Ringnes is the largest brewer in Norway. owned by the Carlsberg Group. History Ringnes AS was founded in 1876. The company's brewery in the Grünerløkka district of Oslo produced its first beer in 1877. The brewery was founded by brothers Amund ...

in 1876. In his hometown of Oslo, Ringnes owns restaurants, hotels and museums, and recently donated more than $70 million for the creation of a large sculpture and cultural park, which opened in 2013. ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' ranks it as one of the top five parks in the world. Over decades Ringnes has built one of the largest private collections of art in the world. Ringnes holds an MBA from the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

in Switzerland and an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in the United States. He has been an active real estate investor since 1984, and is currently the largest shareholder and CEO of real estate companies Eiendomsspar and Victoria Eiendom. In 2001 he bought the dilapidated Ekeberg Restaurant in Oslo, not far from the place where

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...

painted ''

The Scream ''The Scream'' is a composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolizing the anxiety of the human condition. Munch's work, including ...

''. He renovated it and opened the restaurant in 2005. He has also given Oslo the sculptures ''Peacock Fountain'' at the National Theatre station and ''Kate Moss'' at the Opera Passage. The Marketing Association in Oslo appointed Ringnes to "''Oslo Ambassador'' " for his efforts to promote Oslo as a city and destination. In 2005 he was awarded the honorary award "''City Patriot'' " by Oslo. In 2013 he was voted "''citizen of the year'' " by the readers of Norway's largest media outlet

Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...

. At the age of seven, Ringnes developed a hobby after he received an unusual gift from his father: a half-empty

Gordon's Gin Gordon's is a brand of London dry gin first produced in 1769. The top markets for Gordon's are the United Kingdom, the United States and Greece. It is owned by the British spirits company Diageo. It is the world's best-selling London dry gin. G ...

miniature liquor bottle. It was this afterthought of a gift that led him on a path towards amassing what is recognized today as the largest mini-bottle collection in the world with over 52,000 miniature liquor bottles commissioned to a three-story museum in Oslo.

References

1954 births Norwegian chief executives Living people Harvard Business School alumni Norwegian businesspeople in real estate {{Norway-business-bio-stub

See also

References