Helsinki could be the home of a new Guggenheim Museum according to the Guggenheim Foundation which released a statement yesterday on January 10.

In the statement, the Guggenheim Foundation said: "The new Guggenheim would help contextualise Finnish art, design and architecture with the broader tradition of modern art while presenting Finnish audiences with artworks from around the world. It would have a stronger focus on architecture and design than other Guggenheim affiliates".

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation proposed building a museum in the Finnish capital of Helsinki after a year long study to determine the possibility of its creation. The 190-page study was commissioned in January 2011 by the mayor of Helsinki. The total area of the museum, to be built on a city-owned location along the south harbor waterfront, would be about 12,000 square meters. City councilors are expected to decide on the 140 million euro project next month and if approved, the earliest the museum could open would be in 2017.

The estimated construction costs of the building and its design would be approximately €140 million, the estimated annual attendance of the proposed museum is 500,000-550,000 visits and the study also found that the mission and program would not overlap with those of any existing Helsinki institutions. 

The new Guggenheim, however, is still in its early days and there has been no definite plan that it will go ahead.

Jussi Pajunen, the Mayor of Helsinki said: "Helsinki now has an incredible possibility that we should embrace. As the study shows, a Guggenheim museum would be a distinct place in Finland's cultural landscape."

The Guggenheim Foundation's network already includes museums in New York, Bilbao, Berlin and Venice while another establishment in Abu Dhabi is currently being built.


Are you excited by the prospect of a new Guggenheim Museum in Europe? Would you visit it in Helsinki?

Picture: The Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.