Stockholm - A Norwegian businessman and inventor has bought four houses owned by late Swedish director Ingmar Bergman with plans to use them for a culture centre, it was disclosed Friday. Hans Gude Gudesen was approached by Linn Ullmann, one of Bergman's nine children, about buying the property on Faro, an isle off northern Gotland in the Baltic Sea, the online edition of the Dagens Nyheter newspaper said.
The sum Gudesen paid for the Faro property was not disclosed.
Ullmann is involved in a group planning to set up a Bergman Centre at Faro for recreational use by artists, musicians, and filmmakers.
Bergman died at age 89 in 2007.
Gudesen was also revealed to have bought many of the items from Bergman's estate sold at an auction in September for 18 million kronor (2.57 million dollars). Over 300 items were sold.
Many of the items were to be returned to Faro, the newspaper said.
Bergman's four houses on Faro included a main house, a two-room writing lodge, a three-bedroom winter retreat house, and a farmhouse from the 1850s. Nearby was a barn Bergman used as a private cinema.
Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth issued a statement saying she "was very positive" about the plan, adding that the government was keen to preserve Bergman's artistic heritage.
Bergman found fame in the 1950s and 1960s with films like The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona, and Shame.
