The 150th anniversary of Edvard Munch will be celebrated with more than 120 projects in Norway and abroad. However, politicians have still not yet reached an agreement on where the new Munch Museum should be located.
Politicians across Norway are now frustrated with the slow progress in agreeing on a site for a new Munch Museum in Oslo.
"This is embarrassing to our nation," says the head of the cultural committee in Trondheim, Erling Moe (The Liberal Left/Venstre). "After all, we are talking about Norway's most famous man," he adds.
The debate about where the new Munch museum should be built has not yet come to an end. The goal was to come to a conclusion by Munch's birthday on December 12, 2012 - the day he would have turned 150 years old.
However, no decision has been made, and Moe thinks it will take three years and another municipal election before something happens. He thinks the Minister of Culture should have stepped in to help solve the matter. "This is not just a case for the city of Oslo, it concerns our entire nation," Moe tells NRK.
Several other politicians agree with Moe, including the leader of Kristiansand's cultural board, Randi Haukom (The Conservative Party/Høyre). She thinks that the government should help pay for the new museum, since it will be a building for the entire nation, not just for the capital.
The Head of the Oslo City Government, Stian Berger Røsland, agrees that the building of a new museum has been a slow-moving process. He says that they will try to come to an agreement during the next few months, in order to ensure that Munch's collection will have a new home.
(NRK)
Julie Ryland
