The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm (Medelhavsmuseet) was established in 1954 in order to house the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, founded 1928, alongside a large collection of archaeological artefacts excavated by Swedish archaeologists during the 1920s at various sites on Cyprus and ancient Asine in Greece. The Friends of the Museum Association was founded 12 years later in 1966 under the patronage of HRH Gustaf VI Adolf. During its first year, the Friends had a mere 160 members.

On the initiative of the famous Swedish writers Pär Lagerkvist and Eyvind Johnson, alongside influential business executives and the professors of Classical Archaeology at Uppsala-Stockholm-Lund-Gothenburg, the Friends of the Museum was initially intended to support the Museum in finding new suitable facilities. An exhibition featuring the Cyprus collection opened in 1971 at the Historical Museum in Stockholm and in 1982, under the direction of Carl-Gustaf Styrenius, the collection moved to its current address on Fredsgatan 2. On Fredsgatan, the museum is housed in a former bank designed in the neoclassical style—a suitable place for the collections of the museum. Since then, the Museum has received additional Greco-Roman antiquities from the collections of the National Museum at Stockholm. There is also a small exhibition on Islamic and Coptic art.

The number of members has increased successively over the years since its founding in 1966 and reached 1266 in 1987, which, to date, is the highest recorded number. The current number of members is 451. The Friends have helped the museum for more than 50 years in purchasing artefacts for the collections. A number of Cypriot and Etruscan vases were bought for the museum in 2010. Today, the main aim of the association is to organise seminars and lectures on various aspects of Mediterranean culture. Over the last years we organised, for instance, lectures on archaeology in Turkey and Sicily and contributed financially to a newly published book in Swedish on Ancient Mediterranean history. For the coming autumn we are planning a series of lectures on Greek tragedy, probably in collaboration with a local theatre group that will stage various antique plays.

A visit to the Museum is warmly recommended for any sightseer at Stockholm especially since it houses one of the world’s most elaborate exhibitions on ancient Cypriot archaeology. At the museum, moreover, there is a widely acclaimed restaurant specialising in eastern Mediterranean food and with a priceless view on the Royal Palace. Welcome!

By Jesper Blid (president) and Göran Bäärnhielm (treasurer)