Sweden to donate $3 mln to preserve Bergman works

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden said on Monday it will donate 20 million Swedish crowns ($3 million) to ensure the films and scripts of the late director Ingmar Bergman are preserved.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, writing in the daily Dagens Nyheter, said the support would mainly cover films that Bergman directed or for which he wrote the script.

"The rich output of films and television drama contributed by Ingmar Bergman make up an important part of our cultural heritage," they wrote.

Bergman, who died on July 30, will be commemorated at Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre on Monday evening.

The ministers said the Swedish master's films were in high demand from festivals but there were too few copies of certain works and the quality in some cases was poor.

The donation will also go towards the purchase of copyrights and putting Bergman's scripts in digital form.

A vast private archive of Bergman's scripts, notes, sketches and photographs is managed by the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, but the ministers said the foundation lacks the resources to digitalize the archive.