Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Some 2,000 people, including the presidents of Estonia and Finland, gathered in Tallinn Friday for the inauguration of the biggest art museum in Europe's Nordic and Baltic states.
"For a small nation like Estonia the new art museum feeds our national pride -- just as the three gold medals that Estonia has won at the Olympic Games in the past few days has done," Estonian Culture Minister Raivo Palmaru told reporters here.
Some 50,000 works of art have been transferred from the Art Museum of Estonia to go on exhibition at the new museum, called Kumu. The museum will also house an education centre, library and archive, restoration workshop and auditorium.
"The new art museum aims to become a truly international art centre for the region," said Marika Valk, director of the Art Museum of Estonia.
Permanent exhibitions at Kumu will include Estonian classics from the early 18th century until World War II, and Soviet socialist realism works, including many from the Stalinist era.
Construction of the museum began in 2002 and cost some 43 million euros (50 million dollars). Some of the funding has come from gambling tax.
The museum is located in Tallinn's Kadriorg park, which was founded nearly 300 years ago by order of Russian Tsar Peter the Great.
ar/kdz/rm
AFPLifestyle-Estonia-art-museum
AFP 171504 GMT 02 06
COPYRIGHT 2004 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
