Jens Thiis

Jens Thiis (12 May 1870 – 27 June 1942) was a Norwegian art historian, conservator and a prominent museum director.

He was conservator at the Nordenfjeld Industrial Arts Museum (Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum) in Trondheim beginning in 1895 and director of the National Gallery in Oslo from 1908 to 1941.

Thiis was a student at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry (Den kgl.

In 1907, when at the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum in Trondheim, he engaged Henry van de Velde, now considered one of the foremost stylists of his time, to design an Art Nouveau display room and all its furniture and furnishings.

The Henry van de Velde Room is unique in its kind, being specially designed for this purpose.