Information about the Vasa Museum’s financial situation
15 April 2020
The Vasa Museum in Stockholm, with 1.5 million visitors per year is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. Vasa is the world’s best preserved 17th-century ship. Now that visitors from around the world fail to come and the museum is closed due to the coronavirus the museum faces both immediate and long-term financial problems. Extensive saving measures have already been implemented, but it is not enough and staff redundancies are planned for. Worst case, the museum may have to close down permanently. One thing is for sure, without support, a unique cultural treasure and one of Sweden's most important visitor attractions is under threat.
The Vasa Museum is a public authority. Compared to other state-operated museums, the Vasa Museum does not receive support from the Swedish state, but is completely financed from its own revenue. Current estimations show that the loss of ticket revenues and sales amount to SEK 165 million (approximately 80 percent) in 2020. As the museum is a state entity under Swedish legislation, opportunities to save profits from previous years have been very limited. Nevertheless, there are major fixed costs for care and maintenance of the ship, in addition to costs of premises and staff. The museum's cash resources will only last until the beginning of summer 2020. The situation is critical and financial support absolutely crucial.
"This crisis is causing such great damage that it won’t be possible to recover within the foreseeable future. The museum is going to lose valuable staff expertise and may not be able to carry out the preservation work Vasa needs in order to withstand the ravages of time. Vasa is a unique piece of cultural heritage and we have a responsibility not only to Sweden, but also to the whole world to care for, and display her. Her importance is reflected in the large number of visitors from all around the world who come each year. It would be appalling if we couldn't afford to re-open,” says Museum Director Lisa Månsson.
The Vasa Museum is part of the Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums, a public authority which also operate the National Naval Museum, the National Maritime Museum, and the National Railway Museum. All the museums are affected. The loss of revenue from the Vasa Museum means that the budget of the Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums has nearly halved. A comprehensive savings package has been implemented throughout the organisation and all non-core activities have ceased. Leif Grundberg, Director-General of the Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums, says:
“We are in talks with the Swedish government who is aware of our difficult situation and naturally, we are doing everything in our power to let as few people as possible go, but the situation is so grave that redundancies are inevitable. If large-scale redundancies do become necessary it will also greatly impact Vasa’s sister museums.”
During the last three years the Vasa Museum has had about 1.5 million visitors per year, approximately 85 percent are from abroad. Since the opening of the current museum building in 1990, more than 30 million visitors from all over the world have seen the ship. And for a number of years in a row these visitors have ranked the museum as one of the twelve best in the world. The Vasa Museum has definitely contributed to building the image of Sweden. It has been a success story which has never been a financial burden on the Swedish state, but instead helped to attract tens of millions of visitors to Sweden over the years. Now the museum is in a devastating situation and needs help. Quickly. The world’s best preserved 17th-century ship cannot be preserved and displayed without income.