Moderna museet, the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, is a state museum located on the island of Skeppsholmen

Skeppsholmen

Skeppsholmen is one of the islands of Stockholm. It is connected with Blasieholmen and Kastellholmen by bridges. Positioned strategically at the Baltic Sea entrance to Stockholm, it has traditionally been the location of several military buildings...

 in central Stockholm, that was first opened in 1958. Its first manager was Pontus Hultén

Pontus Hultén

Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century...

. On May 2010, Daniel Birnbaum

Daniel Birnbaum

Daniel Birnbaum is the director of the Moderna Museet, the museum of modern art in Stockholm.-Life and career:Birnbaum studied at the Stockholm University, the Freie Universität Berlin and Columbia University in New York. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Stockholm University in 1998. In 1998, he...

 became the new director of the museum.

Collection

The museum houses Swedish and international modern and contemporary art, including pieces by Picasso and Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....

 and a model of the Tatlin Tower. The museum's collection includes also key works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...

, Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...

, Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle

Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès-Brandon Fal de Saint Phalle was a French sculptor, painter, and film maker.-The early years:...

, Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...

 and Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well-known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations...

, as well as ongoing acquisitions by contemporary artists.
In 1993, six works by Picasso and two by Georges Braque

Georges Braque

Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...

 totaling more than £40m were stolen from the museum in a renowned coup where the burglars came in through the roof by night, copying the method from the 1955 French movie Rififi

Rififi

Rififi is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste le Breton's novel of the same name. Directed by American filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster Tony le Stéphanois, Carl Möhner as Jo le Suédois, Robert Manuel as Mario Farrati, and Jules Dassin as César le...

 (French: Du rififi chez les hommes). Only three of the Picasso paintings have been recovered.

Pontus Hultén Collection

In 2005, former museum director Pontus Hultén

Pontus Hultén

Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century...

 bequeathed nearly 800 works of art to Moderna Museet, along with his archive and library. A few works of the collection are on display with the museum's permanent collection; many others are exhibited in the purpose-built Pontus Hultén Study Gallery.

Visiting the permanent collection was originally free of charge, but some of the temporary exhibitions had entrance fees. The fees were reinstated in 2007.

Architecture

Between 1994 and 1998, the museum was temporarily moved while the building in Skeppsholmen was rebuilt by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo

Rafael Moneo

José Rafael Moneo Vallés is a Spanish architect. He was born in Tudela, Spain, and won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996. He studied at the ETSAM, Technical University of Madrid from which he received his architectural degree in 1961. From 1958 to 1961 he worked in the office in Madrid...

. The Pontus Hultén

Pontus Hultén

Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century...

 Study Gallery was designed by Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...

. The museum's restaurant is also famous on its own and popular due to its beautiful location.

Activity

In 2005, the museum played host to the successful onedotzero

Onedotzero

onedotzero is a contemporary, digital arts organisation with a remit to promote innovation across all forms of moving image and motion arts....

festival bringing a new younger audience to the museum with screenings, installations, talks and live VJ audio-visual events.

External links

• Official site - In Swedish and English.