State again leaves museum storage plans without funding

Plans to build heritage storage facilities in northern and southern Estonia have again received no state funding, ERR reports. The Ministry of Finance said the government would need to revisit museums’ needs in future or seek alternative solutions.

Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi said the government had faced difficult choices between the needs of different sectors and the state’s financial resources while preparing the 2027 state budget and the 2027–2030 budget strategy. There was not enough funding for the museum storage facilities, he said.

Ligi noted that funding for other cultural initiatives would increase. The Culture Backpack programme will receive an additional 1.5 million euros from 2027, bringing its annual budget to 3 million euros. The wage fund for cultural workers and coaches will also rise by 3%, with an additional 2.9 million euros allocated annually.

“Building the heritage storage facilities is a large-scale, long-term investment,” Ligi said. He told ERR that deciding which cultural projects receive funding was not his responsibility as finance minister, adding that ministers in charge of each sector make choices within budget limits. “The list of those who do not get funding is endless,” he said.

Liina Jänes, a museum adviser at the Ministry of Culture, said the ministry would continue working on the facilities. “We continue to plan the investment in the heritage storage facilities through the usual state budget and budget strategy process,” she said.

Peeter Mauer, the Heritage Board’s project manager for the facilities, said the planned cost of building and developing the northern Estonia facility was about 39.3 million euros, spread over several years. The current request, submitted through the Ministry of Culture, was for about 2.5 million euros over the first two years to begin design and preparatory work.

Mauer said budget strategy decisions are made in two stages: first, whether design work can begin, and later, with a more detailed budget, whether construction can proceed. He said the project team would apply again next year, as it had done for the past six or seven years. A funding refusal this year did not mean the project was over for the next four years, he said.

Several museums face serious storage shortages. Mauer cited the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Kumu, which needs space for its sculpture collection, and the Estonian Maritime Museum, all in central Tallinn. In southern Estonia, the Estonian National Museum partly eases the pressure, but the Estonian Sports and Olympic Museum in Tartu and museums in Võru and Viljandi also need better storage conditions.

Mauer said repairing ageing premises or building many smaller facilities would not be cheaper and would not quickly provide the required energy efficiency or storage conditions. He added that consultations with the military had found a shared facility to be the most practical option for preserving cultural heritage in peacetime.