MoMA curators urge Norway to preserve Picasso murals in threatened Oslo building

MoMA's chief curator of architecture and design Martino Stierli and chief curator of painting and sculpture Ann Temkin have publicly opposed Norway's plan to demolish the Y-blokka building in Oslo. In a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, they argued that destroying the brutalist structure designed by architect Erling Viksjø in 1969 would mean losing significant architectural heritage and Picasso's site-specific murals. The building houses two Picasso murals, The Fishermen and The Seagull, part of a series of five created for the government quarter starting in the late 1950s. Over 48,000 petition signers support saving Y-blokka, which sustained damage in a 2011 terrorist attack. Norwegian Minister of Local Government and Modernisation Nikolai Astrup announced on 26 February 2020 that demolition would proceed soon. The curators' letter, published in Norwegian press, emphasizes that relocating the murals would be unfortunate due to their site-specific nature. Discussions about demolition began last year following structural assessments.