Guggenheim Helsinki Plan

Guggenheim Helsinki Plan was an initiative to establish a Guggenheim museum in Helsinki, Finland. A proposal was introduced to the Helsinki City Council in 2011. After rejection of the initial plan in 2012, a new plan, introduced in 2013, was considered and finally rejected in 2016.

Following the 2011 proposal of a plan by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for a museum next to South Harbour, Helsinki, a debate was waged among local political and culture activists. The project's construction costs were estimated at 130–140 million euros to be paid by the city of Helsinki and the Finnish State. Guggenheim's license fee for the first 20 years was estimated as 23.4 million euros. Running costs of 14.4 million euros per year would outstrip annual admission fees of only 4.5 million euros. A survey found that 75% of citizens in Helsinki, and 82% of citizens in Vantaa, opposed the project. The Helsinki City Council rejected the plan in 2012. In 2013, Finland's Parliamentary Ombudsman issued a report concluding that Finnish investor and art collector Carl Gustaf Ehrnrooth, a member of the Board of Directors of the Guggenheim Foundation, and Janne Gallen-Kallela-Sirén, director of the Helsinki City Art Museum and a chief exponent of the Guggenhiem plan, had conflicts of interest involving the plan and each other.

In September 2013, the Guggenheim Foundation advanced a revised proposal that sought to address the concerns. Operating cost estimates were revised downwards, while revenues were forecast by the Foundation to increase. In 2014, the city board agreed to reserve a new site for a potential museum at Eteläsatama and authorized the Foundation to hold an international architecture competition to design the potential museum. The competition drew a record 1,715 submissions, and six finalists were announced. In June 2015 the French-Japanese architecture firm Moreau Kusunoki Architectes was selected as the winner. In December 2016, the Helsinki city council rejected the plan.

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