Villa Paus

The villa was built in 1907 for the iron and steel industrialist Ole Paus (1846-1931), a member of the Paus family, founder of the steel company Ole Paus and chairman of the commercial bank Den norske Creditbank (now DNB ASA). It combines Neo-Baroque and Art Nouveau influences. The property comprises about 1200 square meters, including ten main rooms, rooms for servants and a big hall, and originally had around 7 decare park and 80 metres shoreline. In the 1970s five new villas were built on parts of the park which were partitioned off.[2]

During the German occupation of Norway during World War II, the villa was used as the summer residence of Josef Terboven (1898-1945), German Civilian Administrator of Norway.[3] [4]

From 1953 it was owned by the barrister Mathias Dahl-Hansen and his family. In 1997, the villa was sold to the billionaire Petter Stordalen, one of Norway's richest men.[2] In 1999 Finansavisen described the villa as Norway's most expensive residence[3] and in 2016 the business magazine Kapital estimated the villa to be worth 150 million kroner (ca. 16 million euro).[5][6]

In front of the villa there is a three-meter luminous statue of Buddha. The sculpture is called "Sitting Tattoo with Mountains."[7]