The gallery valued the sculpture at tens of thousands, it sold for millions

Prague - The statue "Torso of a Walking Woman" originating from the Tugendhat villa in Brno, which was auctioned in London on Monday for more than 40 million crowns, had been valued at just tens of thousands of crowns for decades in the Brno gallery's deposit. "Its value was estimated at 68,000 crowns; even later, the gallery did not value it higher despite the experts' comments," said architecture historian Karel Ksandr to ČTK.
    The sculpture had been in the collections of the Moravian Gallery in Brno since the end of World War II. It was placed there thanks to the then German director of the organization, who saved it along with other works confiscated from persecuted Jews from being lost. It was only in the 1960s that it was included in the catalog.
    On Monday, it was auctioned in London for one million pounds, or more than 40 million crowns, after it was put up for auction by the descendants of the original owners of the villa, who have now acquired the sculpture. According to Bloomberg, it was purchased by a private gallery owner representing a European client. According to Ksandr, it could likely be a German collector - in the German context, the author of the statue, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, is the most significant pre-war author of similar importance as Jan Štursa or František Bílek are for the Czech context. According to Ksandr, there are still two examples of the same sculpture.
    After the sale of the statue, a debate arose in the Czech Republic about whether the state should have done more to keep the statue in the country, i.e., whether it should have been declared a cultural monument; such a work cannot be removed from the country. The Ministry of Culture emphatically highlights the moral aspect of the issue - namely the compensation for the victims of the Holocaust. The office also states that after being replaced in the villa by a copy, the statue became a solitary piece outside the museum collection, which weakened the reasons for its declaration as a monument. It also mentions the fact that its author was not a Czech artist. However, there are many monument-protected works by world authors in the Czech state collections.
    Nonetheless, many experts consider the fact that the original statue will likely never return to the villa as an irreplaceable loss. Ksandr disputes the Ministry's opinion, which claims that for the overall impression of the villa a copy of the statue is sufficient. He has worked on the restoration of the Prague functionalist Müller villa and has been dedicating over ten years to the Tugendhat villa and preparing its reconstruction.
    "The copy is made of bronze and was clearly created for exterior display. The plaster original with a thin stone layer on the surface, in which the touch of the author is evident, was white, and it was this color that was important for its placement in front of the onyx wall," he explains the differences between the two sculptures. The subtle harmony of the unusual materials used in the design of the house is one of many aspects that make the Brno villa a world-class exceptional work.
    The fragile original statue was not placed back in the villa for security reasons - authors of the installation did not want to place it in a display case due to the authentic impression of the villa's environment. At the same time, an unexpected situation could not be excluded during visitor operations, where the statue could be damaged. Therefore, a copy remained; in the planned reconstruction of the villa, an exhibition about its history was planned for the basement, where the original was also supposed to be placed in a security display case.
    Ksandr notes that the statue could have been declared a cultural monument at any time over the past decades. Declaring it a monument purposefully at a tense time when the Tugendhats are requesting the return of the villa and when according to Czech and international laws they are entitled to the statue is perceived by many as immoral. In the catalog of collections, there was a note for the statue stating that it is a Jewish confiscated piece. The sculpture was long on the international list of works stolen from Holocaust victims, and it could be presumed that someone would request its return.
    The Ministry's information that the statue was not declared a cultural monument, among other reasons because the monument-villa includes its copy, is adjusted by Ksandr in the sense that when declaring an immovable cultural monument, it is only about the building, or its parts inextricably linked to it. The furniture and interior are declared separately - as is the case for castles and chateaux - some are national cultural monuments that are managed by the central office of the NPÚ, and their furnishings are declared only cultural monuments, with their management entrusted to the relevant departments of municipal offices.
    Experts involved in the long preparations for the reconstruction of the Tugendhat villa believe that city officials will now delay the transfer of the villa to the descendants of its original owners. City representatives feel that the sale of the statue is an injustice - the descendants of the villa's owners have always said that the sculpture is an irreplaceable memorial to their parents and the villa; they also carefully preserve the original furnishings from the villa that their parents managed to take away.
    The idea of transferring the villa from city ownership to the state, which can return the property, failed. The Tugendhats will likely sue for their family property - according to Ksandr, the reconstruction of the building may be delayed by another years.
    The Moravian Gallery also released other items from the villa that the descendants requested - five pieces of original furniture - a chaise longue, a coffee table, and a buffet. However, the gallery obtained them only in 1981 and paid a private individual approximately 90,000 crowns for them. "Since they were not obtained through confiscation, but through purchase, according to the law on the management of collections, they should not have been released. The Tugendhats could have claimed them in court, they would likely win, and then the gallery should have released them," says Ksandr.
    The media also speculate on whether the Tugendhats have the money for the villa's reconstruction, which is estimated at around 110 million crowns. They must have a good idea about this themselves, as there are art historians and restorers among them. Ksandr believes that with the reputation they have in the field and the significance of the Tugendhat villa, an international foundation to support the Tugendhat villa would surely obtain the necessary funds. The World Monument Fund has had approximately 300,000 crowns ready for several years, which publishes a list of the most endangered monuments around the world every two years. However, it did not want to give it to the city without guarantees that the reconstruction would begin.