Stockholm - Original stage costumes, music instruments, photos and other memorabilia from the heydays of former Swedish group ABBA were to be exhibited at a dedicated ABBA museum to be created in Stockholm, museum founders said Tuesday.
Former ABBA members Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, and Anni-Fred Reuss (formerly Lyngstad) gave the green light to the project last June, co-founder Ewa Wigenheim-Westman said, adding that the museum was due to be opened sometime in 2008.
In a joint statement the four former ABBA members said it was 'great that someone feels like taking on our musical history and making it accessible,' adding that they hoped it would be 'a fun and groovy museum to visit.'
Wigenheim-Westman said she got the idea to the museum along with her husband Ulf Westman after visiting the Beatles Story Exhibition in Liverpool, and contacted the former ABBA members that still sell two to million albums a year although it was two decades since they released their last joint album.
ABBA, which had their international breakthrough when they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo, have sold an estimated 370 million albums.
The plaque from the 1974 win in Brighton was one of the items ABBA fans were slated to see in the museum.
The museum is also aiming to offer visitors an interactive experience including the chance to record their own songs.
Stockholm mayor Kristina Axen Olin said the project was 'fantastic and would add something extra to Stockholm' and promised to help the duo in the search for a suitable location, preferably on the central island of Djurgarden that houses the 17th century warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage 1628 but was salvaged 1961.
'We hope to attract some 500,000 visitors a year,' Westman said, adding that the museum project was initially estimated at 40 to 50 million kronor (5.8 to 7.2 million dollars).
The Vasa museum annually has some 1 million visitors while the Junibacken set up around characters and scenes from children's author Astrid Lindgren's books has some 400,000 visitors.
The former ABBA members were not to be active partners in the project that would require corporate funding, Westman added.
The project includes a web site: www.abbamuseum.com.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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