This month, faced with accusations of financial wrongdoing and hints of a cover-up, the academy announced that it would postpone awarding the literature prize for the first time in 69 years, and instead name two winners in 2019. Now, Lars Heikensten, director of the Nobel Foundation, said in a radio interview that there might not be a Nobel Prize in Literature awarded in 2019, either, deepening the crisis at the 232-year-old cultural organization.
Heikensten said the prize “will be awarded when the Swedish Academy has won back the public’s trust — and that means there is no deadline for 2019.” He said if the academy cannot resolve its problems, the Nobel Foundation could appoint a new institution to administer the world’s most prestigious cultural prize a measure that would require a further amendment in the statutes.. However, Per Wastberg, a member, said, “That is not possible, according to Alfred Nobel’s will and the law.”