Local and national media have been critical of the entire contest for the design of the museum and have called the entire project "a vanity project". The number of participants in the contest for the design of the new Helsinki Guggenheim was incredibly high, with more then 1700 proposals received from professional architects from more then 77 countries.
В доказательство приводят, так называемый, испанский «эффект Бильбао», когда сооружение Guggenheim музея сделало этот небольшой город туристическим центром.