The case is linked to the Venice Biennale. According to Ilta-Sanomie, Haapala also charged his wife’s accommodation expenses to the National Gallery. According to the National Gallery, Haapala paid the expenses back.
In addition to Kiasma, the National Gallery includes two other museums: the Ateneum and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum.
The case is linked to the Venice Biennale, one of the most important art events in Europe.
Ilta-Sanomat received a request for information on Haapala’s travel invoices for 2019-2022, which show that in April, Haapala booked a double room for himself and his wife for five nights in a hotel in Venice. The cost of the stay was €2023.20.
In the end, the National Gallery accepted 1,423.20 euros of the Venice accommodation costs, and Haapala had to pay part of the accommodation costs, a total of 600 euros, back to the National Gallery. According to Ilta-Sanomi, the travel invoice talks about misuse of the payment time card.
The issue related to Haapala came to light when Ilta-Sanomat investigated the foreign trips of all three National Gallery museum management.
In the same period, the costs of the trips abroad of the director general of the National Gallery, Kimmo Levä, were 5,742 euros.
According to Ilta-Sanomi’s information, Kansallisgalleria only intervened in paying the spouse’s expenses when a message about Haapala’s traveling and being with her spouse had been sent to the internal channel.
It questioned the accompanying of the spouse on business trips and demanded to find out what kind of expenses the National Gallery incurs from Haapala’s spouse.
Haapala has led Kiasma since 2015. The main financier of the National Gallery is the Ministry of Education and Culture.