SMK (National Gallery of Denmark)

SMK is the largest art museum in Denmark and is also officially the so-called ‘main museum’ for visual art in the country. This gives SMK a special responsibility for helping to nurture and develop museum activities as such in all of Denmark – and for cultivating and strengthening co-operation with museums in Denmark and abroad. SMK owns the nation’s largest art collection, comprising approximately 260,000 works of art. The collection was originally founded as the royal collection, meaning that it was the private property of the Danish kings, but with the introduction of democracy in Denmark in the mid-1800s, the kings’ art collection was given to the people. That gift eventually became SMK.