VILNIUS — About 1 million litai (€290,000) in funding for the Vilnius Guggenheim Museum, set to be built in the Lithuanian capital, appears to have gone missing according to state auditors.

Meanwhile, the municipal government announced that the project, which would be the first Guggenheim in Eastern Europe, cannot be started for at least five years due to a lack of public finances.

“For the Vilnius municipal government and Lithuanian national government, I know that within the next five years it will not even be theoretically possible to initiate construction of the building. For proponents of the project, this is sad news. For opponents, good news,” Gintautas Babravičius, deputy mayor of Vilnius said at a press conference on Friday.

The missing money was supposed to be spent as part of a feasibility study for the museum’s construction. The municipality said that the case would be investigated immediately.

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