Birgitta Rubin: Swedish museums are threatened by soot death

It started smoldering more than 30 years ago, has flared up at irregular intervals and this autumn caught fire in earnest: the criticism of the Norwegian Property Agency's market rents, which threaten to kill state museums. The situation is now urgent for the East Asian Museum, the Mediterranean Museum and the Army Museum in Stockholm. The dance museum has already been forced to leave two central premises and has been homeless for nearly two years.

Last week's "Threats to our Museums" seminar, organized by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, gathered a large crowd of museum lovers in the East Asian Museum's auditorium (available on Axess television). Several senior executives were invited, such as the Minister of Culture and the State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture and officials at the Real Estate Agency, as well as the superintendents of the World Culture Museums and the State Museums of Maritime, Transport and Defense History.

Nobody came.

A representative of the think tank Timbro was completely alone in his defense of neoliberal ideas about market rents for all.

I myself have for several decades reported on how the museums are bleeding and the rents are swallowing up an increasingly large part of the budget, which has led to layoffs of experts and steadily reduced resources for the activities. More and more people, increasingly frustrated, have mentioned the problems in the media. A public plea has even been delivered by the liberal Olle Wästberg, State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance in 1991–92, that the then new system for the State Property Agency's rent setting "over the years has been perverted into a market approach which was not the intention of the museums" (SvD 27/12 2016).

Nothing has changed.

Only marginally – for a handful of arts and cultural institutions. The National Museum has recently received so-called income-adjusted rent, but it is not yet clear whether it will be substantially lower.

This autumn, however, the Riksdag's culture committee woke up, called the State Property Agency to a meeting and SD proposed that the government should investigate the system with the rampant rents (which are also a huge problem for the country's universities). Perhaps because popular discontent has exploded on social media, where several groups have formed to protest against museum closures. "Save the Medieval Museum" also organized a demonstration against the Riksdag administration's dismissal of the Medieval Museum from tailor-made premises with ancient remains on Helgeandsholmen.

After three years, this museum is still standing on the street, as promised premises in the Stock Exchange will only become available when the Nobel Center gets a new house on Stadsgårdskajen.

No solution in sight for many years.

At Wednesday's seminar, there was resounding applause when Lars Anders Johansson, board member of the Swedish Building Maintenance Association, argued that the Government Office can instead move to the suburbs.

The Dance Museum has long since found temporary premises - albeit a good distance outside the city, in Hagalund in Solna (where a new museum building may not be ready until 2029).

For museums and other cultural institutions, the problem concerns both sky-high market rents, which have also driven co-locations, and general competition for attractive locations in the inner city. The Riksdag administration has now also evicted the Wetterling gallery after 42 years in the same premises in Kungsträdgården, and rumors abound that the Government Office is looking for the Mediterranean Museum's grand premises at Gustav Adolfs torg.

At Wednesday's seminar, there was resounding applause when Lars Anders Johansson, board member of the Swedish Building Maintenance Association, argued that the Government Office can instead move to the suburbs. A living city is dependent on public activities in the center, where most residents and also tourists move.

In the case of the East Asian Museum, the Mediterranean Museum and the Army Museum, the profit from their activities in cultural-historical buildings - thus open to the public - was also claimed.

The seminar's four speakers all contributed to providing background and new facts on the question of which values ​​are at stake. Olle Granath, former director of the Modern Museum and the National Museum, devoted his time to museum mergers. Especially the long-criticized authority World Culture Museums, based in Gothenburg, which recently for the third time in ten years recommended closing down the East Asian and Mediterranean Museum in its current premises and co-locating them with the Ethnographic Museum on Djurgården. This after the Norwegian Property Agency announced a rent increase of 57 percent for Etnografiska.

But the authority itself, which also includes the World Culture Museum in Gothenburg, is a construction that never worked - from the start in the 90s called an "ethnographic little pan", now by Granath a "museum bouillabaisse". A mix of ethnographic, art and archeological museums, with very different cultures and languages. Also, in two cities 50 miles apart.

Granath also recalled the investigation "Leka marknad" in 2000. Here the insanity was highlighted in that cultural institutions that manage our cultural heritage are rented out in the same way as commercial car dealers or hotels, when in addition some museums are built specifically for their activities, so-called special purpose properties. Granath also criticized the real estate agency's overrents, which "by far" exceed the yield requirement (last year by 700 million).

The superintendent of the World Culture Museums, Britta Söderqvist, had a valid excuse to decline the seminar, she was in Lagos for the repatriation of the Ethnographic Museum's Benin Bronzes. But how can both she and the previous chief superintendent so unilaterally prioritize the Gothenburg Museum, worst functioning according to many including me, and which according to the investigation ten years ago alone swallowed 42 percent of the authority's budget? This at the expense of three ancient but significantly devalued museums in Stockholm.

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I suspect this is because the authority is top-managed, in accordance with New public management, and has done away with expert museum managers who can fight for their units. It is also bad that negotiations on staff cuts have started before decisions have been made about the future of the museums.

According to Magasin K (21/10), two Asian curators are to be removed and all art science competence de-prioritized. This, moreover, in a political limbo, before we have a new government and culture minister who will hopefully put their foot down.

At the seminar, researcher Jan Romgard gave an account of the East Asian Museum's hundred-year history, based on famous research collaborations and donations from mainly the China Committee and Gustaf VI Adolf. The question is whether it is even legal to close down a museum like this.

However, no one wants to call it closure.

Co-location sounds better. But in practice, the mutual uniqueness of the museums, and the world's unique collections are threatened to crowd together and become less accessible. If the East Asian Museum loses its own premises and its identity, the consequence could be reduced knowledge of the world's most populous nation.

Museum director Karin Sidén, in her turn, gave an account of "How Waldemarsudde managed to get out of the State Property Agency's holdings". She called it a "Houdini affair", with the help of a foundation lawyer who nailed Prince Eugen's will. The prince donated the entire property and all art to the Swedish people, which enabled the transformation of Waldemarsudde into a foundation in 2015, which in 2017 also became free from the National Museum as head.

After escaping an unreasonable market rent, the museum's costs have been reduced by 50 percent and the core business has been significantly strengthened. Likewise for the Thielska gallery, after the foundation, with the help of a secret donor, was able to free up the museum building in 2021.

The foundation form is clearly advantageous for museums in Finland, which only pay operating or cost rent, just like in Norway. In Denmark, the state museums pay no rent at all, as it is considered to create a circular flow of state funds. But in Sweden, the state gives the museums with one hand and takes most of it back with the other hand.

Karin Sidén also sits on the Vitterhetsakademien's working group, which with a letter to the Department of Finance wants to put an end to rent levels that damage the museums' mission. Both market rents for cultural activities and the Norwegian Property Agency's excess profits, which grow as the return requirement is based on the authority's own capital.

For me, it is a scandal that death from soot threatens important museums in a country as rich as Sweden

The state museums are tasked with collecting and preserving cultural heritage, contributing to the development of society by promoting knowledge, cultural experiences for all and free opinion formation, as well as conducting or facilitating scientific research. At the same time, 9 out of 10 respondents in the union DIK's survey in 2025 testify that they lack sufficient resources to live up to their tasks.

For me, it is a scandal that soot death threatens important museums in a country as rich as Sweden, especially as the need for more has been spoken about for decades. We lack a design museum, a photography museum, a fashion museum and a central museum for our unique glass art. Add to that the fact that a public institution for our biggest art star in the world, Hilma af Klint, is written in the stars.

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