Task and responsibilities

The SHMM agency administers cultural heritage and provides perspectives on our existence in order to strengthen the democratic development of society. We are working on changing and improving our operations with a view to becoming the best museum of cultural history in the Nordic region.

The tasks and objectives of operations at the SHMM are set out in the ordinance detailing instructions for National Historical Museums (SFS 1997:1172) and the annual letter of appropriations decided by the government.

The collections of the Museum of National Antiquities comprise archaeological artefacts from Sweden and Swedish ecclesiastical art. The artefacts come from the whole country and all periods of history. The collections contain more than 10 million individual objects catalogued under around 34,000 inventory numbers. The Royal Coin Cabinet has collections of coins, notes and other methods of payment, along with medals and artefacts relating to financial history from every age and all countries.

Collections at the Royal Coin Cabinet.
Photo: Gabriel Hildebrand, The Royal Coin Cabinet

In addition to the SHMM, there are several more central museum agencies: Nationalmuseum with Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, the National Museums of World Culture, The Royal Armoury, Skokloster Castle and Hallwyl Museum, the National Maritime Museums, the Swedish Museum of Architecture, the Swedish National Collections of Music and Moderna Museet. In addition to these museum agencies, there are a number of central museums which are foundations. These are Nordiska museet, Skansen, the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology and the Museum of Work.

The Museum of National Antiquities also has the status of a "responsible museum" in the field of archaeology and ecclesiastical art history. This means that the museum shall:
- work to achieve appropriate coordination of museum activities, primarily between museums at central and regional level,
- assist other museums, particularly at regional level, and
- work to develop contacts between museums and the community at large.
The Museum of National Antiquities is one of five responsible museums. The others are: the Museum of Ethnography, Moderna museet, Nationalmuseum, the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Nordiska museet.

Published by: Gun Nordquist