Current National Museum Home 'Embarrassing,' Says UK Expert
The current situation in which the National Museum is housed in a Soviet-era building that was once a club for railway workers is embarrassing, said David Fleming, director of the National Museum of Liverpool.
"I would be embarrassed if I were an Estonian politician and that was my national museum," Fleming, who has been called one of the most influential museum heads in Britain, told ETV during the Tartu-based museum's annual conference on April 17.
Fleming said that although finding financial means for construction of the planned new National Museum building is a challenge, calling the project too ambitious is unjustified. Estonia should make the move as it would be a direct investment into education, he said.
This year, the European Commission turned down a 32-million-euro funding application for the project, citing what it considered to be unrealistically low construction cost calculations and an unrealistic aim of having 170,000 visitors by 2018. The state then pledged to build the museum using its own means.
Elisabeth Tietmeyer, deputy director of the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin, said at the conference that the new national museum would have to be spacious as it would not only accommodate permanent and visiting exhibits, but also have the function of educating children and families.
Ingrid Teesalu