Norway’s new Munch Museum on Oslo’s eastern waterfront won’t open until sometime in the spring of 2021. Delays tied to the delivery of fire- and security doors, along with the Corona crisis, have forced the museum’s second postponement of grand opening ceremonies.
“We understand that this is disappointing for many, also for us,” said museum director Stein Olav Henriksen on Wednesday. Delays in installing both the fire- and security doors and getting an indoor climate control system to function as needed means the museum can’t yet take over the new high-rise building in Bjørvika that otherwise was mostly finished earlier this year.
None of the museum’s vast and valuable collection of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s art can be moved until especially the climate system is documented and confirmed as operating securely. That’s important for the preservation of Munch’s art, which the artist himself willed to the City of Oslo upon his death in 1944.
Given all the ongoing Corona virus containment measures, a grand opening this fall would likely have had to be curtailed anyway. Henrichsen claims the new museum “will be fantastic, with both our own collections and international exhibits” that will be worth waiting for. The existing Munch Museum in Oslo’s Tøyen district is remaining open until the move finally takes place.
newsinenglish.no staff
