Olga Tokarczuk

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2018

Polish novelist, essayist, poetess, screenwriter, advocate for civil liberties and animal rights, clinical psychologist.

"A novel should tell a story, be a pleasure to read and at the same time it should be thought-provoking, even a bit instructive."

Sexual Assault Scandal in Swedish Academy, 2018

by Lalitha M. Kutty, M.S. [Library & Information Science], M.A. [English Literature]

Sexual harassment. Image: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free

Swedish Academy in Stockholm Stock Exchange Building. Image: Adam.thomp07, Wikipedia

In April 2018, the Swedish Academy announced that an internal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations found that "unacceptable behavior in the form of unwanted intimacy" had taken place within the ranks of the prestigious institution. As a result of this allegation, the Academy postponed awarding the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. Since 1949*, this was the first time the award had been delayed. The 2018 prize was later awarded to Olga Tokarczuk in 2019.

Sara Danius had been the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy from May 2015 to April 2018. She was holding that position at the time of the scandal. Anders Olsson succeeded Sara Danius holding the position from April to June 2018. Anders Olsson, said in a statement that "we find it necessary to commit time to recovering public confidence in the academy before the next laureate can be announced.” Olsson said the Academy was acting “out of respect for previous and future literature laureates, the Nobel Foundation and the general public."

The Nobel Foundation also put out a statement that "the crisis in the Swedish Academy has adversely affected the Nobel Prize. Their decision underscores the seriousness of the situation and will help safeguard the long-term reputation of the Nobel Prize. None of this impacts the awarding of the 2018 Nobel Prizes in other prize categories."

Jean-Claude Arnault on the last day of trial, 24 Sep 2018. Photo Dick Schager, Wikipedia

Katarina Frostenson. Photo: Frankie Fouganthin, 21 Oct 2013, Wikipedia.

Swedish Academy member, poet Katarina Frostenson’s husband, Jean-Claude Arnault (77 yrs. of age), a French-Swedish photographer and leading cultural figure, was accused of serial sexual abuse that took place over a span of more than 20 years. Eighteen women accused him of sexual misconduct. The couple has also been accused of misusing Academy funding. The scandal was first reported in November 2017 by Matilda Gustavsson in the Stockholm daily paper, Dagens Nyheter, around the time of the rise of the #MeToo movement. The paper published the testimonies of 18 women who said they had been assaulted by Jean-Claude Arnault.

Sara Danius, the Academy’s permanent secretary from May 2015 to April 2018. She mishandled the criminal sexual charges. Photo: Frankie Fouganthin, 2017, Wikipedia.

Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Academy at the time, also announced that she herself had been sexually harassed by Jean-Claude Arnault. As permanent secretary, she was criticized for her weak leadership and mishandling the serious criminal charges. She was ousted from her position as permanent secretary but was allowed to continue as a member of the Academy.

According to CNN, it is also alleged that Jean-Claude Arnault touched Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria inappropriately at a Swedish Academy event in 2006.

NPR's 'Literature Nobel In Doubt Amid Claims Swedish Princess Was Sexually Harassed' by Colin Dwyer states, "Three witnesses had seen photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, put his hand on Victoria's behind during a 2006 event at an academy-owned property. "He came lurking from behind and I saw his hand land on her neck and go downward. It was all the way down," Swedish writer Ebba Witt-Brattstrom, who had been attending the event, later confirmed. Witt-Brattstrom says a uniformed aide to the princess, who was then 27, "just flew herself" on the then-59-year-old Arnault. "She grabbed him," Witt-Brattstrom added" and 'whop', he was gone. The crown princess turned in surprise. I guess she had never been groped. She just looked like 'what?' "

Several times, ahead of the official announcements, Katarina Forstenson (70 yrs. of age), had also been suspected of revealing to her husband, the names of awardees. The couple operated a separate cultural forum which received funding from the Academy.

Sture Allen permanent secretary of the Academy from June 1986 to June 1999. He shelved and took no measures to investigate the criminal charges. Photo: Albin Olsson, Wikipedia.

A Swedish law firm representing the Academy had found “unacceptable behaviour (by Jean-Claude Arnault) in the form of unwanted intimacy, but the knowledge was not widely spread in the Academy.”

CNN reported that “the lawyers also discovered that the academy had received a letter in 1996 (when Sture Allen was the permanent secretary of the Academy) outlining alleged sexual assault at Jean-Claude Arnault’s cultural forum, (an arts center in Stockholm of which Arnault was the artistic director), indicating that November 2017 was not the first time that at least some members of the Academy were aware that the photographer’s name had been connected with misconduct.” The Academy acknowledged that a letter containing detailed allegations about incidents at an associated organization in 1996 “was shelved and no measures taken to investigate the charges.”

The prize money is controlled by The Nobel Foundation. The Foundation warned the Swedish Academy that it could stop the academy from awarding the prestigious prize, unless, considering the scandal, it made appropriate changes.

The scandal resulted in several resignations and expulsions of members of the Academy - the institution’s biggest crisis since it was founded by King Gustav III more than 200 years earlier in 1786. Members Klas Ostergren, Kjell Espmark and Peter Englund said they were leaving their seats. A fourth member, Sara Stridsberg also left the Academy in April 2018. The New York Times stated that the “academy has 18 members who are elected for life, and there is no provision for resignations, meaning the seats of those who quit remain unfilled until their deaths. If one more member walks out, however, the academy will no longer have the 12-member quorum required to vote in new members.” Later the laws were changed.

The Guardian noted that “what made the matter a wider global scandal is that it seemed to reveal something rotten at the heart of the Swedish Academy: many of the attacks were said to have taken place in luxurious apartments owned by the academy in Stockholm and in Paris. Jean-Claude Arnault and Katarina Frostenson also profited for years from academy subsidies to an arts club they owned and operated together. In addition, Katarina Frostenson has been accused of leaking the names of literature prize laureates to her husband Jean-Claude Arnault, with the result that large bets were placed with bookies in Paris.” Katarina Frostenson also stepped down as a result of the scandal.

Out of the allegations by 18 women, only one woman’s allegations of being raped twice could be tried. The other allegations could not be tried because the statute of limitations had passed or because of lack of evidence.

In October 2018 in the Swedish Stockholm District Court, District Prosecutor Christina Voigt charged Jean-Claude Arnault with two counts of rape against the same woman in Stockholm in 2011. Prosecutor Voigt demanded that he be imprisoned for three years. The four-judge court unanimously found him guilty of one count of rape on Oct. 5-6, 2011. He was acquitted of the second rape which took place two months later. Arnault was sentenced to two years in prison which is the minimum term for rape, the maximum being six years, as per Swedish law. Judge Gudrun Antemar stated Arnault “must remain in custody until the judgment of the verdict is enforceable.”

The District Court verdict was appealed by both the prosecutor and by the defendant, Jean-Claude Arnault. On December 3rd 2018, the Svea Court of Appeal unanimously found Arnault guilty also of the second count of rape. The court increased the sentence by six months to two years and six months in prison and raised the fine to 215000 kronor.

Sweden’s largest high-security sex offenders’ Skogome Prison. Image: Showman, Wikipedia.

Jean-Claude Arnault was imprisoned in Skogome Prison, a high-security prison and Sweden’s largest prison for sex offenders. Classified as a class 2 institution, Skogome is a closed institution. Arnault was imprisoned in that prison due to the nature of his crime and because the Correctional Service assessed him to be an escape risk. The decision stated, "There is considered to be some risk that Jean-Claude Arnault may try to evade the execution of the prison sentence."

Despite Skogome Prison being capable of a high degree of supervision and control as is necessary to maintain order or security, Swedish media reported that he was disciplined for breaking prison rules by making sexist comments towards a female warder. In late 2019 he was transferred to another prison at Tillberga.

Jean-Claude Arnault was conditionally released from prison in May 2020.

More info in:

1. Vanity Fair’s 'The Nobel Prize Scandal Is About More Than a #MeToo Moment.'
2. Johanna Ekstrom in The Guardian, "… sex for entry to the inner circle? … Maybe I was … ready to pay the price …"
   Photo: Bengt Oberger, Wikipedia.

*NobelPrize.org states, “William Faulkner received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1950. During the selection process in 1949, the Nobel Committee for Literature decided that none of the year's nominations met the criteria as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel. According to the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the Nobel Prize can in such a case be reserved until the following year, and this statute was then applied. William Faulkner therefore received his Nobel Prize for 1949 one year later, in 1950.”

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