"We hereby announce the sad news that it won't be possible to open the ABBA museum in Stockholm in 2009," wrote Ewa Wigenheim-Westman and Ulf Westman on the ABBA museum website.
A 100-year-old waterfront building was being renovated for the four-level, 6,500-metre museum, and in a separate release, the organizers said it was not certain the originally planned site will be used.
ABBA, made up of Agnetha Faltskok, Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, racked up a string of hits in the 1970s and 1980s and their cult following has made them some of Sweden's most recognisable figures.
The museum, stocked with artifacts from the disco-era foursome's heydays, was due to open in June 2009. The website says an interactive exhibition will allow fans to "sing like Agnetha and Anna-Frid."
"This is very sad for everyone involved and especially for all the fans the world over who are longing for the day when the museum opens," the organizers wrote.
But their message had the same upbeat tone that is a staple of so many of the band's hits in the 1970s and 1980s: "As a concept, ABBA the Museum is much bigger than temporary setbacks. So don't give up - we're not giving up!"
(Reporting by Adam Cox in Stockholm)
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