The rent will increase by 8 million kronor (about $760,000) per year, on top of the approximately 14 million kronor (about $1.3 million) the museum already pays. The rent increase was announced in April, when the Swedish National Property Board terminated the Army Museum’s contract and said the rent would rise by 60 percent.
At a staff meeting on Monday morning, the management of the State Museums of Maritime, Transport and Defence History (SMMTF) announced that it did not want to renew the lease for the current premises. According to Magasin K, the museum will close as early as this spring. It will remain closed indefinitely until new premises are found.
Recently, the Museum of World Culture announced that it was recommending the closure of the Mediterranean Museum and the East Asian Museum in Stockholm because of a sharp rent increase from the Swedish National Property Board.
Anna Troberg of DIK describes a “museum slaughter” with “huge consequences”:
“Unique cultural heritage is at risk of being destroyed, expert competence is being lost and the public’s access to their history is being hijacked. That this is happening now is no surprise. DIK has long sounded the alarm about this development. The situation is urgent. The government and the new Riksdag (Swedish parliament) must act immediately to save the museums, now and for the future,” she writes in an email to TT.
