Geographer and former member of the Swedish Academy Sven Hedin's works and deeds have been exhibited at the Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm.

Now the museum is removing parts of the permanent exhibition after the Swede's sympathies with Nazi Germany once again bubbled to the surface.

In an email to SVT Kulturnyheterna, the museum confirms that an exhibition, which included Sven Hedin, has been taken down.

"The exhibition was a basic exhibition with perspectives that are increasingly being re-evaluated in research and in the museum world," writes Anna Lundström, deputy head of content and learning at the World Culture Museums, which includes Ethnography.

The criticism: Misleads visitors

It is already known that Sven Hedin sympathized with Nazism.

In a new book by the popular historian Tommy Lundmark, a picture is also published of Sven Hedin flirting with Nazi leaders.

In the informational text of the base exhibition, which has now been collected, Sven Hedin's craze for Nazism was compared to the fact that he also spoke positively about communist leaders.

The wording misled visitors, according to Tommy Lundmark, who welcomes the change.

- Hedin had a known craze for men with power.

But to make that comparison: that he liked and was impressed by communist leaders and compare it to what he did for Nazi Germany is just wrong.

It's completely up the walls, says Tommy Lundmark to SVT Kulturnyheterna and adds:

- The fact that he is standing next to Heinrich Himmler and doing the Hitler salute in 1940 has to be taken into account.

Changes the exhibition

Ethnographic has responded to the criticism by removing most of the exhibition.

But two parts remain – a film about Hedin's work and a stand with his collections.

However, the Nazi connections are not mentioned in any info texts in the remaining parts.

How Sven Hedin will be handled by Etnografiska in the future is unclear, but the museum states in an email that an analysis is underway together with other museums and organizations.

- A fresh start is needed if they want to show him off, says Tommy Lundmark to SVT.