Museum Dedicated to Metallica’s Cliff Burton Set to Open Near Site of Tragic Bus Accident

A museum honoring the legacy of late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is set to open in May in Ljungby, Sweden, near where Burton died in a tragic tour bus accident in 1986.

The Cliff Burton Museum, funded in part by the Swedish government, will feature ephemera from Burton’s tenure with the heavy metal legends — pictures, videos, tour posters, and more — as well as remembrances from first responders at the Sept. 27, 1986 crash site where Burton was killed at the age of 24.

(A decade ago, members of the Swedish faction of Metallica’s fan club raised money to install a Burton stone memorial at the crash site, with fans often making the pilgrimage to the monument.)

“We primarily want to honor Cliff Burton, who died so tragically in the middle of his career, and talk about who he was as a person and a musician,” the founders of the museum told Guitar World. “Our second main purpose is to create a meeting place for all those who seek the memorial site in the small community of Dörarp. We want to continue the fine work that the fans started when they started raising funds to make Cliff’s memorial stone.”

The museum will open its doors on May 14 with a launch event featuring a talk by Bass Player magazine editor Joel McIver, who penned a biography about Burton.