High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Valdemar Atterdag holding Visby to ransom, 1361 is a historical painting (oil on canvas, signed in 1882) by the Swedish historical painter Carl Gustaf Hellqvist (1851 1890). This painting depicts how the Danish king Valdemar IV (a.k.a. Valdemar Atterdag) collects treasures from the people in the Gotlandic medieval town of Visby in the summer of 1361 AD. If the town's people do not fill the three big beer vats with gold, silver and other riches, Valdemar will see to that the whole town is burned to the ground. This type of taxation is known as fire taxation.