The Reitan Group Aims to Create A “Bilbao Effect” in Norway With The Pomo Museum

The idea is ambitious: to turn Trondheim, a small city in northern Norway with just over 200,000 residents, into an international cultural destination through a museum of modern and contemporary art, the PoMo, which opened its doors in 2025, thereby creating in Norway what is known as the “Bilbao effect”— the transformation of a city through a museum. Transforming Trondheim in Norway, just as Bilbao was transformed by the Guggenheim, is a project conceived by the Reitan family, who are originally from the city and own the Reitan Group. The entity, a private company that generated revenue of approximately 16 billion Norwegian kroner (or 11.5 billion euros) in 2022, is one of Scandinavia’s largest business empires, active in the food sector—with supermarkets, discount stores (Rema 1000), and convenience stores—as well as in transportation and real estate, its main business sectors.

Its founder, Odd Reitan, is listed in the Forbes rankings with a personal fortune of $7.8 billion. His empire also includes other sectors benefiting from investments, such as hospitality and culture, primarily managed by Ole Robert, Odd Reitan’s son, and Robert’s wife, Monica. It was they who sought inspiration from Bilbao and the Guggenheim. One need only consider the transformation and rebirth of Bilbao, initiated by the museum designed by Frank Gehry and inaugurated in 1997, which transformed the economy of a city facing a post-industrial crisis; a project with spectacular results, where the Guggenheim’s contribution to GDP amounted to 676.7 million euros and where every euro invested generates between 3 and 5 euros. Furthermore, the number of visitors continues to rise, reaching 1.3 million in 2025. All these signs indicate that the world’s major museums are significant economic players, whose impact extends beyond the cultural sector.

Architecture played a fundamental role in Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim, and the PoMo, though in a different context in Trondheim, also took architecture as its starting point; the Art Nouveau premises were renovated by the Franco-Iranian architect and designer India Mahdavi, in collaboration with her Norwegian colleague Erik Langdalen; in this case, it is a renovation project that respects local architecture, certainly less self-referential than Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim.

A project born of a passion for art, as Monica and Ole Robert are avid collectors: “Our trip to New York in 2006 with the gallerist and friend Peder Lund played a fundamental role in sparking this intense passion. At MoMA, we saw a work by Louise Bourgeois, accompanied by her messages on feminism, diversity, and equality; it was love at first sight, and that’s where our collection began to grow. Art has a lasting quality, with messages that are passed down from one generation to the next.”