Unesco: One in eight museums is likely to disappear

The UN cultural organization UNESCO and the international museum organization ICOM state that one in eight museums is liable to disappear as a result of the corona pandemic, which Sweden's radio Culture Culture was the first to report.

Right now, 90 percent of the world's museums - about 85,000 institutions - are closed. Worst is the location in Latin America where 99.4 percent of all museums are closed.

Despite the fact that several Swedish museums have started to re-open their operations, the organization Sweden's museums believes that the situation does not look very different here.

- That one of eight museums risks disappearing does not sound unreasonable for Sweden, too. We are facing an acute economic crisis at a number of museums, ”says Jeanette Gustafsdotter, secretary general of Sweden's museums to the Culture News.

She mentions Gotland's museum, Jamtli, Junibacken, Skansen and Vasa Museum as examples of museums that are severely affected in Sweden.

The lack of foreign tourists is devastating, especially for the museum operations in the big cities, and according to Jeanette Gustafsdotter, several museums have signaled that there is a risk of bankruptcy after a summer with low visitor numbers.

"This is the first time in the history of the world that the situation looks like this, and it will be difficult to get out of the crisis for these institutions," Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, UNESCO's Deputy Director-General, told the news agency AP.