The opening of Norway’s new National Museum has already been postponed so many times that the latest was initially met with shoulder shrugs in Oslo. Now it seems the public won’t be reunited with the country’s national treasures until sometime in 2022.
Museum director Karin Hindsbo didn’t want to say exactly when in 2022 an opening may take place, perhaps to avoid more disappointment over even more postponements. She does hope it will be “early” in the year though, rather than later.
The head of the state building agency in charge of the project, Statsbygg, blamed the latest delays on the “complexity” of the building and all of its “strict demands for security, temperature and indoor climate.” Construction has completed, but newspaper Aftenposten and other media have cited complications from delayed delivery and mounting of new security doors from a company in Bodø that later went bankrupt. That’s also delayed the opening of the new Munch Museum on Oslo’s eastern waterfront.
The delays have boosted costs at the National Museum, with Statsbygg now seeking another NOK 50 million in state funding to cover them. The budget for the museum (which combines the collections of the former National Gallery, Museum of Applied Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Architecture Museum) has now risen to NOK 6.15 billion (USD 683 million).
newsinenglish.no staff
