Minutes of the 24th meeting of the Board of the National Museum of Iceland, 41 Suðurgata,
101 Reykjavik, December 18, 2003, 11:30 AM.
Present were: Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, Ólafur Kvaran, Álfheiður Ingadóttir, Ragnheiður H. Þórarinsdóttir, and Rakel Halldórsdóttir. Gísli Sverrir Árnason was present by phone.
1. The minutes of the 23rd meeting were approved and signed. The minutes of the 20th, 21st, and 22nd meetings were signed.
2. Director's Report. The director reported on the council's activities since the last meeting. The National Museum Council received a query from Drífa Hjartardóttir of the Althingi (parliament) (Doc. 508). The Executive Director sent the Minister the answers on December 8. The 2002 annual report of the Collections Fund has been signed and sent to the State Audit Office, but it turned out that the 3 million króna credit from 2001 (from the Ministry of the Environment) was a correct entry.
3. Message to the Museum Council:
a. Request from the City of Reykjavík, on behalf of the Reykjavík Museum of Archaeology, for a construction grant for the construction of an exhibition pavilion for the settlement remains at Aðalstræti. Continuation of discussion from the 23rd meeting. The National Project Administration has submitted a professional assessment of the feasibility of the cost estimate and the agency considers the submitted estimate to be realistic, but points to a 20–30% uncertainty factor. It was decided to process the application with a positive recommendation to the minister. The possibility of having the applicant cover the cost of the State Project Administration's professional assessment will be explored.
b. Letter from the Hólar Research requesting permission to temporarily export antiquities and animal bones from the Hólar Research's archaeological excavations abroad for research purposes. Mrn. did not consider ministerial approval necessary since this does not involve a loan for exhibitions. A letter will be sent to the Hólar excavation granting permission for the export.
4. Service Agreement. The agreement was signed and submitted to Mr. for approval.
5. The Museum Council's allocation system. It was decided that the executive director would prepare a report, for the next meeting, regarding the pros and cons of the Danish method for evaluating grants to Danish museums.
6. Chairmanship of the Museum Council. Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, chair of the Museum Council, proposed that the chairmanship be rotated in the new year and that it then be held by Ólafur Kvaran. MH is writing a letter to the minister about this.
7. Arrangement of activities and meetings for 2004. The arrangement will be discussed at the beginning of next year.
The next meeting was scheduled for January 9, 2004.
There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 1:00 PM/RH.