Merchant Holm in Kivik and State Antiquarian Curman in Stockholm – On the institutionalization of the cultural heritage sector during the first half of the twentieth century. In recent years, several thought-provoking studies have been published on the history of archaeology and the coming of a cultural heritage sector. A central figure in these studies is Sigurd Curman, who also was the State Antiquarian in Sweden between 1923 and 1946. Common to these studies is a fairly normative historiography celebrating Curman’s life achievement. In my ongoing research about Bredarör in Kivik, I have also encountered Curman and his life project, not least since this monument was one of the first that he restored and made accessible to the knowledge-hungry public in the early 1930s. The inauguration of the restored monument in 1933, with Crown Prince Gustav Adolf as the most distinguished guest, is without doubt one of Curman’s most important milestones. Some 3,000–4,000 people witnessed the event. Curman was celebrated for his great success. The picture that emerges in archives and collections of letters, however, tells a partly different story about the beginnings of the cultural heritage sector in Sweden, where hitherto anonymous actors on the periphery, such as the local merchant Anders N. Holm of Kivik, played important roles. Holm’s commitment to this particular monument exhibits both similarities and dissimilarities to Curman’s vision of a modern culture heritage sector, as highlighted in this article.