Inside the Swedish National Museum: Caring for a National Treasure with Modern Tools

The Swedish National Museum stands as one of Scandinavia’s most important institutions for art and design. The building itself – a 19th-century landmark – houses centuries of creative achievement, from delicate portrait miniatures to monumental oil paintings and intricate textiles.

Behind the scenes, an equally careful process is underway: the ongoing work to protect these collections from the forces of time, light and climate.

When the museum set out to modernize how they monitor the environment surrounding their collections, they ran a detailed and thoughtful selection process. They were looking not just for equipment, but for a partner that could handle the complexity and scale of their site – more than 15,000 square metres across multiple galleries and spaces. Ultimately, the museum selected Bev/Art, beginning with an installation of sensors in the main building.

The seasonal climate in Sweden poses a particular challenge. In winter, the air inside can become extremely dry; in summer, humidity levels can rise dramatically. At the museum’s entrance alone, relative humidity can swing from 70% to as low as 18%. For fragile works – such as miniature portraits painted on ivory or textiles made of silk – those fluctuations can create stress that accelerates deterioration over time.

Bev/Art Installation at the Swedish National Museum (videography credit: Appfarm)

The system now gives conservators real-time insight into the microclimates surrounding each piece. That data helps them understand exactly what the artwork is experiencing, and when adjustments might be needed.

As Maude Daudin, Portrait Miniature Conservator, explains: “First of all with Bev/Art, it is very easy to do, and it saves time and resources.”

But for Daudin and her colleagues, technology is not just about efficiency – it’s about care.

“The compromise between exposure and keeping objects visible and accessible… This balance is actually incredibly supported by technologies and devices.”

In conservation, the idea of “reducing our mark” is central. Each time an object is treated, handled, or moved, it adds to its history of interventions. The museum’s long-term goal is to minimize those actions and to extend the life of treatments for artworks to endure with as little interference as possible.

“When you think a treatment should last at least 50 years,” Daudin says, “we want to reduce our action, we want to reduce our mark. To know exactly where we stand in terms of cumulative lux, stress and fluctuations for objects, this is really a huge support for us.”

Today, data from the Bev/Art sensors supports this philosophy – helping the museum’s team better understand and anticipate environmental shifts, and to make more informed decisions about when, or whether, to intervene.

For visitors, the result is invisible: A stable environment that allows art to be safely seen, studied and enjoyed.