Prague will be able to place Mucha’s epic in Savarin for 25 years with a five-year option
Updates: 31/01/2022 12:27
Released: 31.01.2022, 12:27
Prague – The capital will be able to place the Slavonic epic of Alfons Mucha in the Savarin Palace on Wenceslas Square for 25 years with a five-year option. The dispute with one of the heirs, John Mucha, will now end, and there will be room in the space for the family collection to be displayed. The developer, Welwyn, or one of its companies will be in charge of operation and administration. This follows from the draft agreement between Prague, the Mucha Foundation and Welwyn, which was approved by Prague councilors.
The cycle consists of 20 large canvases, which Mucha has been painting for 18 years since 1910. Since last year, they have been lent to Moravský Krumlov for the next five years, where it has been exhibited in the past.
The lease term will be 25 years and the capital will have the option to extend the lease term once for five years, under the same conditions, unless the city and the developer agree otherwise. According to the wording of the agreement, Welwyn will complete the construction of the permanent exhibition within four years of obtaining a final decision on the location of the Savarin Palace building. The zoning decision was issued in March 2020, but has not yet come into force.
The agreement brings an end to a long-running dispute between John Mucha and the capital over the ownership of the canvases. In the case of signing the agreement, according to its wording, Mucha undertakes to acknowledge the city’s ownership of the canvases and withdraw its lawsuits within 30 days of signing. On the contrary, Prague undertakes not to move the paintings other than to its own exhibition spaces intended only for the epic, as the painter Alfons Mucha wished for.
The exposition will also include a space for an exhibition of the family collection. However, none of the other parts of the permanent exhibition will be allowed to disturb the artistic impression of the epic, both from a technical and artistic point of view. According to the document, the hall where the epic will be will be 23 meters wide and more than 60 meters long. The canvases should be placed opposite each other, with a space of about fifteen meters between them.
Proceeds from the operation of the permanent exhibition, ie from the sale of tickets and other activities, will be collected by the operator for Prague, or the Gallery of the Capital City, and the Mucha Foundation. The money will be used to cover the direct costs of operating and managing the exhibition. According to the document, the costs of operating a permanent exhibition are estimated at 539 crowns per square meter per month. They include, inter alia, estimated staff costs, including security and safety, maintenance, which will include any other possible restoration and monitoring of works, or marketing.
The first 11 canvases of the epic were exhibited in the Prague Klementinum in 1919, and from 1920 to 1921 they reaped success at exhibitions in New York and Chicago. The whole epic was first exhibited in 1928 in the Trade Fair Palace in Prague and the paintings came under the administration of the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague. In 1933, the canvases were rolled up and deposited in a depository. It was not until 1963 that it was exhibited again at the castle in Moravský Krumlov. After 1989, however, the chateau, which used to house a railway school, fell into disrepair.