Norway's Central Bank Just Approved These Crazy Modern Art Bank Notes

Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway, recently held a contest to redesign the country's bank notes. (Norway uses the kroner - it's still outside the Euro area.) One of the finalists was this design featuring a traditional Norwegian motif on one side and a child's drawing of the same scene on the other:

And here's the other side:

In the end, however, the bank chose designs from two professional design agencies. One side of the notes features Norwegian scenes and motifs from a company called The Metric System, and they look fairly traditional. But the other side, designed by Snøhetta, is a cubist version of a Norwegian scene that is so pixelated it's impossible to tell what the original image was.

Take a look. We've got the front followed by the modern art-style back of each note here:

The 50:

And on the back ...

The 200:

The back:

The 500:

The back:

And the 1000:

And the back: