Just weeks after ground was broken for the new Munch Museum on Oslo’s eastern waterfront, estimates of projected operating costs at the new museum have soared. Budgets submitted to the City of Oslo suggest costs will triple.
With a lease rate of NOK 100 million a year, a need for 90 security guards and more employees at the new museum, musuem officials are looking at annual operating costs of at least NOK 300 million. Newspaper Dagsavisen reported that the move alone, from the existing Munch Museum in Oslo’s Tøyen district, will cost around NOK 40 million.
Since the new museum will be much bigger than the museum at Tøyen, maintenance and utility costs will also be higher. In 2015, the museum had a budget of NOK 110 million, with NOK 25 million covered by income generated by the museum itself and NOK 85 million provided by the City of Oslo. The budget for 2020, Dagsavisen reported, is set at NOK 304 million.
Museum officials expect far more visitors, though, and thus higher revenues from tickets and other sales to visitors. The new Munch Museum has set a goal of attracting 500,000 visitors a year, compared to 140,000 at the existing museum next year. The new museum is due to open in 2019.
newsinenglish.no staff
