Hafnarborg regularly purchases new works in accordance with the museum’s collection policy and holds exhibitions of works from the collection. The Director usually makes proposals for purchases, often in connection with exhibitions, as it is important that the collection reflects the museum’s exhibition policy.

The museum enjoys great goodwill and regularly receives offers of fine gifts. All proposals for purchases and gifts are submitted to the Hafnarborg Art Council for approval, but gifts that come with any stipulations are not accepted.

The foundation of the collection was laid with the generous gift from the museum’s founders, Sverrir Magnússon and Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir, who gave their art collection to the town of Hafnarfjörður in 1983. The founding gift included nearly 200 works, among them pieces by pioneers of Icelandic visual art such as Kjarval, Nína Tryggvadóttir, Jóhann Briem, and Júlíana Sveinsdóttir.

Over a long lifetime, we acquired a book here and there, a picture here and there. Before we knew it, the beginnings of a collection had appeared. Gradually, these treasures become a part of your life and existence, and you are reluctant to see them scattered, or even fall prey to auctions.
– Sverrir Magnússon, Fjarðarfréttir, 1988

Sverrir began collecting art during the depression years around 1930, when he acquired a watercolor by Ólafur Túbal. The art collection then grew steadily as Sverrir became more diligent in attending and following art exhibitions. The collection contains many traditional landscapes, townscapes from Hafnarfjörður, and still lifes, which reflect the bourgeois taste of that era.