Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage.html



Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage Direktoratet for kulturminneforvaltning
Agency overview
Formed	1912
Jurisdiction	Government of Norway
Headquarters	Oslo
Agency Executive	Nils Marstein
Parent agency	Norwegian Ministry of the Environment
Website
www.riksantikvaren.no

The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Norwegian: Riksantikvaren or Direktoratet for kulturminneforvaltning) is a government agency responsible for the management of cultural heritage in Norway. Subordinate the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, it manages the Cultural Heritage Act of June 9, 1978.¹

Organization

The county municipalities are responsible for the cultural heritage management in their county. As well, for Sámi heritage, it is the responsibility of the Sami Parliament and on Svalbard it is the Governor of Svalbard that is responsible. For excavations there are five chartered archeological museums.

History

The work with cultural heritage started in the early 1900s, and the first laws governing heritage findings came in 1905, with the first law protecting heritage buildings appearing in 1920. The post as National Antiquarian was established in 1912. When the Ministry of the Environment was created in 1972 the responsibility was transferred there, and the current law for cultural heritage is dated June 9, 1978, replacing the two older laws. The post was made a directorate on July 1, 1988.

List of Natioaal Antiquarians

• 1912–1913 Herman Major Schirmer
• 1913–1946 Harry Fett
• 1946–1958 Arne Nygård-Nilssen
• 1958–1977 Roar Hauglid
• 1978–1991 Stephan Tschudi-Madsen
• 1991–1997 Øivind Lunde (leave of absence since 1995)
• 1997– Nils Marstein (consitituted since 1995)

References