Stockholm City ready to sue the Swedish Academy

In March 2019, the City of Stockholm City Councilor Dennis Wedin (M) announced that the municipality wanted the Swedish Academy to start paying rent. According to the municipality, it pays six million in rental costs and SEK 1.5 million in operation per year for the stock exchange.

The answer from the Academy did not wait: We have already paid - a hundred years ago.

In 1913, it was intended that the Swedish Academy, with the help of donations from a patron, would take over the Exchange House for SEK 800,000. But that agreement then landed in that the Academy would use floor two "for all future". A total of SEK 600,000 was paid from the Academy to the city.

According to the Academy, if the money was managed differently by the City of Stockholm, the money would have covered the rent and more than today. But that was not the case, and the City of Stockholm does not think it feels reasonable that the taxpayers in the municipality should have to sue for a wrong decision made over 100 years ago.

The academy states that in February, the City of Stockholm announced that it was ready to go to court. The Academy writes in a statement to the Culture News:

“The academy has now received a demand from the city for additional compensation for the use of the areas disposed of under the 1914 agreement. The academy has rejected the claim. The city has announced its intention to terminate the Academy unless further compensation is paid. The city also requests that the issue of entitlement to additional compensation be tried in court. "

The academy also writes that they hope to have a dialogue with the city.

Following the Academy's statement, Dennis Wedin says that the City of Stockholm has a lawsuit ready to submit to the District Court, but that it intends to have another meeting with the Academy.

- Our deadline has expired, but then we got an indication that it was worth pursuing a further dialogue. If we had not received that signal, then we would have ensured that the matter goes to court, says Dennis Wedin (M) to the Culture News.

The question to be worked out is whether or not the agreement that exists between the Swedish Academy and the City of Stockholm is a rental agreement.

- We look seriously at our relationship, but we are tough on the question that we want to rent. I stand on the taxpayers' rent, but we want to keep the Swedish Academy in the Exchange House.