Storm damage prompts Latvian museums to seek over €100,000
Thursday 27th August 2026 on 17:30 in
Latvia
Latvia’s Culture Ministry has received dozens of requests for funding to repair storm damage at cultural institutions, with preliminary estimates exceeding €100,000, LSM reported, citing Latgale Regional Television.
The Raiņa Museum Jasmuiža, a museum in Preiļi municipality, has asked for about €4,000 after 15 trees were uprooted across its three-hectare grounds. The museum building was not damaged.
“This is our great linden from Raiņa’s time, the only tree that could be from the 19th century,” museum director Solvita Kleinarte said. One of the tree’s branches had broken off, and another section also needs to be removed.
The museum has five employees. They cleared smaller branches and raked the grounds the day after the storm, but the work then stopped. Larger trees and branches must be cut into sections and transported to the museum’s storage area, requiring workers with chainsaws, Kleinarte said.
The museum appealed for help from the municipality and on social media. Municipal workers were unable to assist because they had to work at another location, while the museum is state-owned. Some men volunteered their lunch break and worked for about an hour to help.
The museum has submitted initial information about the damage to the Culture Ministry and requested approximately €4,000 to hire arborists.
“At this point, the overview suggests that more than €100,000 will be needed to deal with the consequences at the institutions subordinate to the Culture Ministry, which are state cultural institutions,” said Lita Kokale, head of the ministry’s public relations department.
The ministry plans to compile the funding needs and ask the government for money from its contingency funds.
Ināra Polmane, director of the Memorial Museums Association, said that almost half of its museums, or five, suffered damage of varying severity in the storm.
The Raiņa Museum Jasmuiža continues to receive visitors, but dangerous parts of the park have been cordoned off. Staff members intend to clean up the grounds, although the time required remains unclear.