National Gallery cutting opening hours

Jobs and opening hours falling to austerity measures next year

Statens Museum for Kunst, the national gallery, is implementing several cost-cutting measures next year.

The morning opening time of the museum will be changed from 10:00 until 11:00 am, and the gallery will also cut the two weekdays that Den Kongelige Afstøbningssamling, a collection of plaster sculptures, is open.

Funds for art purchases will be cut by about 1 million kroner and nine positions will be cut or reduced over time.

Government-imposed
The cuts are due to the government-imposed austerity plan, which has charged the museum with saving about 16 million kroner over the next four years.

“There is no doubt that it hurts to cut the opening hours of the crowd,” Mikkel Bogh, the head of the National Gallery, told DR Nyheder.

READ MORE: Musicians and maestros condemn cuts at the Royal Danish Theatre

Bogh said the museum still has a duty to provide the highest quality in research, dissemination and preserving the country’s cultural heritage, which is why most of the cuts are being made concerning the gallery’s opening hours.