Culture Minister Parisa Liljestrand (M) wants to reduce the number of cultural authorities. But merging three smaller art authorities into a larger one would, according to the Academy of Fine Arts, mean that the three would lose their "cultural uniqueness and vitality".
"What does it profit a person if they gain the whole world but lose their soul?" writes the Academy of Fine Arts, which is a quote from the Gospel of Matthew.
The Academy of Fine Arts emphasizes that having its own budget responsibility is a prerequisite for success and then cites the Östasiatiska Museum as a deterrent example. In 1997, it was incorporated into the larger authority, the State Museum of World Culture, and has still not recovered, according to the Academy of Fine Arts. Instead, the Östasiatiska Museum is now a "cultural ruin", according to the Academy of Fine Arts.
The proposal to rename the Modern Museum to "Moderna" also receives harsh criticism. The name change would be made to emphasize that the Modern Museum is an authority, which according to the Academy of Fine Arts is evidence of the investigator's ignorance about the museum as a free art arena: "it could just as well be about insurance or pharmaceuticals".
