Introducing: Millesgården

Millesgården is an art museum and sculpture garden located on the island of Lidingö, near Stockholm, on the grounds of the former home of artists Carl and Olga Milles. The couple acquired the property on the cliff of Herserud, high above lake Värtan, in 1906 to build a home incorporating space for their art studios. The house was designed by architect Carl M. Bengtsson and was built 1908. During the following half-century Millesgården was expanded in collaboration with Carl's half-brother, architect Evert Milles, who participated in the realization of a first addition (1911-13), an open-air studio in the form of a loggia wing, and later, in the 1920's, in the incorporation of adjoining properties along the south slopes, and in the construction of the middle terrace, the Small Studio, and a spacious lower terrace with monumental replicas of free-standing and fountain sculpture from Sweden and the USA. During the Milles couple's absence between 1931 and 1950, while Carl was professor at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan (USA), in 1936 Millesgården was constituted into a foundation, which was donated to the Swedish people.

The institution is today a well renowned museum with an artist home, an antique collection and a vast sculpture garden, still run by the Carl and Olga Milles Lidingöhem Foundation, which now includes representatives of the Swedish Government and the Municipality of Lidingö.