"It is my assessment that this is the most realistic and sustainable," says Britta Söderqvist, superintendent at the Museums of World Culture, who informed staff on Monday.
Ahead of next year, the Swedish Property Board, which manages the state-owned museum premises, has terminated the lease agreement for the Ethnographic Museum at Gärdet in Stockholm and proposed a 57 percent rent increase, equivalent to 12.25 million kronor per year.
The World Culture Museums, which also include the Mediterranean Museum, the East Asian Museum and the World Culture Museum in Gothenburg, say similar increases can be expected for the Mediterranean Museum and the East Asian Museum, whose leases expire next year.
Museums may be closed
They write in their budget documents for 2027–2029 that if this happens, funding will be "eroded" and "staff cuts will become necessary" unless they receive an additional 35 million kronor per year.
To cut costs, the plan is to terminate the leases for the Mediterranean Museum and the East Asian Museum next year. The museums will then close, and it is unclear whether they will be revived.
"I understand that you have favorite museums and that there may be concerns about what happens to them, but we are doing this to secure the future development of museums," says Britta Söderqvist.
Do you expect to have to lay off staff?
"We are not there yet at all. We have not looked at that issue. Everything that relates to the consequences of this proposal going forward needs to be discussed in the usual way together with the trade unions."
"Business-wise"
Minister of Culture Parisa Liljestrand (M) wrote in a comment to TT that she had just received the budget documents and could not comment.
“But we are aware that the authority has a challenging local situation and are monitoring the issue.”
Ellinor Magnusson, property director at SFV:
"The Swedish Property Board's mission is to act commercially, and we are continuing negotiations within the framework of that mission and expect to achieve success."
Previously, there have been plans to move the collections of the Mediterranean Museum and the East Asian Museum to the Ethnographic Museum.
Facts: World culture in the long bench
A merger of the Ethnographic, Mediterranean and East Asian Museums of World Culture in Stockholm has been discussed on and off for ten years.
The background is an analysis from the Swedish State Treasury which in 2015 showed that too much of the money goes to premises and personnel costs and too little to the operations themselves.
The now proposed rent increase for the Ethnographic Museum would mean that the proportion of the funds going to premises costs would increase from 42 to 45 percent.
Superintendent Britta Söderqvist on the question of whether a merger is still a possibility:
"The authority is already working to display the collections in all locations. We must and should develop this approach. Now it is incredibly important to talk internally about how we should work going forward."
