Viking ships lose out to Munch

OHMYGOSSIP — Two of Oslo’s most traditional tourist attractions, the Viking Ship Museum and Norwegian Folk Museum at Bygdøy, are reporting declines in their numbers of visitors. Summer crowds this year seem to be spending their time instead at the special exhibits celebrating the 150th birthday of famed Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.

Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported on Wednesday that around 255,000 persons have seen the ancient Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune ships so far this year, compared to 264,500 in the same period last year. That’s a decline of just over 3 percent, according to Anette Maartmann-Moe of Norway’s Museum of Cultural History (Kulturhistorisk museum), of which the Viking Ship Museum is a part.

At the adjacent Norwegian Folk Museum, visitor numbers fell 11.1 percent last year, to 230,000 persons. Museum officials blamed a downturn in the number of visitors coming to Norway from economically ailing Italy and Spain. “We know that Scandinavians aren’t as interested in the open-air museum as Europeans,” Museum Director Olav Aaraas told DN.

Visitors are still streaming, meanwhile, to the “Munch 150″ exhibit that opened June 1st and encompasses special displays and events at the National Gallery, the University’s Aula, the Munch Museum and other venues associated with Munch, like the company canteen he decorated at the Freia Chocolate Factory and his studio at Ekely.

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