More than 90% of cultural heritage saved from Danish stock exchange fire, government says

VINGE, Denmark (AP) — As a fire ravaged the Old Stock Exchange in downtown Copenhagen in mid-April, many people in the Danish capital rushed toward the flames and emerged with paintings, sculptures and other important objects of Danish cultural heritage.

Seven weeks later and after about half of the 17th-century building, including its iconic dragon-tail spire, was destroyed, Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said that more than 90 percent was destroyed. cultural objects from the building had been saved from the fire.

“Firefighters, employees and volunteers coming off the street helped save the artwork,” Engel-Schmidt told The Associated Press in an interview. “More than 350 objects and paintings were saved from the fire.”

Engel-Schmidt said some items could not be saved, including a sculpture that was too heavy for rescuers to lift and artwork painted directly on the building's walls. The sculpture was a copy of Danish neoclassical artist Bertel Thovaldsen's work of King Christian IV who died in 1648. The monarch is credited with building the old stock exchange.

The rescued objects are now stored in a modern, air-conditioned warehouse at the National Museum in Vinge, near Frederikssund, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of Copenhagen. The facility is surrounded by fences, a moat and thick concrete walls.

“Some of the 170 paintings are currently being restored,” Engel-Schmidt said. “Others are of very good quality and will be loaned to different museums in the coming months so that the public and the Danes can enjoy them again.”

As fire ravaged the more than 400-year-old building, even Brian Mikkelsen, CEO of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which owns the building, ventured to save the artwork.

Thanks to a carefully crafted “heritage plan” that took into account the most important paintings and sculptures, Mikkelsen knew exactly what to prioritize: a huge painting titled “Of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange” by Danish artist PS Krøyer.

Completed in 1895, it represents around fifty men wearing top hats gathered in the large hall of the stock exchange and measures 254 centimeters (100 inches) times 409 centimeters (161 inches), making it one of his largest paintings.

“That one was number one,” Mikkelsen said of the painting, which he called a national icon by one of the country’s most famous painters. He said it “symbolizes the rise of Danish industry, society, welfare society and business society.”

The cause of the fire on April 16 is still under investigation, but it is believed to have started on the roof while it was enveloped in scaffolding due to ongoing renovation work. Two days later, a large part of the building's exterior wall collapsed inwards.

Mikkelsen has repeatedly pledged to rebuild the 1615 building, considered one of the leading examples of the Dutch Renaissance style in Denmark. Such a project could take five years or more. Mikkelsen said the funding was in order, but did not say how much was raised.

Although they were saved, many paintings did not escape the fire unscathed, said Nina Wajnman, a painting conservator at the National Museum of Denmark. She said several of them suffered water damage from fire department hoses.

“There was no real fire damage. There was no real heat damage or significant soot damage,” she said. “A lot of it was water damage, and the first paintings that were saved were not damaged at all.”

Wajnman was among many people who rushed to the exchange when she heard news of the fire and spent the day evaluating the saved paintings with colleagues from the National Museum.

The Copenhagen fire is reminiscent of that of April 2019 at Notre-Dame de Paris. The 800-year-old cathedral also lost its spire. Its partial restoration should be completed this year.

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Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.