Mayor of Helsinki Jussi Pajunen, and Deputy Mayor Tuula Haatainen, today announced that the city has enlisted the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to produce a concept and development study for a potential new Guggenheim Museum in Finland.

A team headed by Juan Ignacio Vidarte, Deputy Director and Chief Officer for Global Strategies of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and Ari Wiseman, Deputy Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, will complete the study by late 2011. They are to examine the mission and structure of the museum, its prospective relationship with Helsinki's existing visual arts institutions, its economic impact and the form that the exhibition and education programmes may take.

Speaking at a press conference today, Mayor Pajunen explained: "As the capital of our country and home to its greatest concentration of art museums, Helsinki has a special responsibility to keep improving and developing Finland's cultural infrastructure. It is widely recognised that cultural destinations can help drive economic growth for a country, provided they are created within an intelligent overall plan for development."