Stockholm's modern art museum reopens

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Stockholm's six-year-old Modern Museum has opened for the second time after being closed for nearly two years to correct embarrassing dampness problems.

Built in 1998 on the site of the original Moderna Museet in a former gymnasium on Skeppsholmen Island, the building designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo was abruptly closed for ventilation improvements in 2002 and its famous collection loaned out to institutions all over Sweden.

The reopening was marked with a display of many of the museum's most famous holdings of 20th century art and some of its most recent acquisitions, such as videos by Zarina Bhimji and Eija Liisa Ahtila.

In the 1960s, the museum was an international center for cutting edge art under the directorship of Pontus Hulten. Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenberg, Joseph Beuys, Jean Tinguely, and Nikki de San Phalle worked there and added to the museum's international collection that is notable for its quality and originality.