The committee assessed the projects of candidates for the position of director of the NG

Minister Riedlbauch is leaving for a business trip to Argentina on Saturday.

Prague - The selection committee evaluated the projects of seven candidates for the director of the National Gallery in Prague (NG) yesterday and also met with all of them in person. However, the outcome of their meeting is not yet known. The organizer of today’s competition, the Ministry of Culture, as well as committee members and candidates, do not want to comment. The head of the committee, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University Michal Stehlík, only stated to ČTK that the committee recommended one of the candidates to the minister.
    "The protocol with the ranking of candidates will be submitted to the minister on Thursday by its chairperson," said Ministry spokesperson Jan Cieslar to ČTK. The minister did not attend the meeting today; according to the spokesperson, he will likely want to familiarize himself with the candidates and their projects personally. He is unlikely to make a decision in the coming days, as he is leaving for a business trip to Argentina on Saturday.
    However, the minister does not have to follow the committee's recommendation. Minister Václav Riedlbauch previously stated that he would like to select the new director of NG before the May elections.
    Committee members were required to sign in the morning that they must not disclose anything about the outcome of today’s meeting, nor about its course, until the official announcement of the results. "It went fairly and pleasantly," one of the candidates, curator Richard Drury, told ČTK.
    "I based my concept heavily on management; I believe it is important for the National Gallery. However, I had the feeling that some members of the committee do not consider it important," said gallerist Monika Burian to ČTK, who is also vying for the director position. According to her, there is a certain division within the committee, with some members fearing change. "This probably stems a bit from our national character," she said. "It is a search, and the final decision will be up to the minister."
    Burian also stated that she tried to take gender aspects into account. "The invitation letter (for today’s meeting) was only in the masculine form," she noted. There are two women and ten men on the committee; likely six men and two women applied for the contest, with one disqualified by the ministry; however, the ministry has not yet officially confirmed the names of the candidates.
    Burian believes that a female manager at the head of NG could apply female diplomacy, negotiation, assertiveness, and could perhaps alleviate the social tensions that have arisen around this significant national institution more than a man could.
    In addition to the mentioned individuals, the contest was participated by the director of the Collection of Old Art at NG, Vít Vlnas, his predecessor Jiří Fajt, the director of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Marek Pokorný, and probably also the current director of NG, Milan Knížák. Nicole Šťávová from the auction house Christie’s was disqualified due to the failure to meet formal requirements, and the last interested party is expected to be a financier and collector whose name is not yet known.
    The committee was assembled by the ministry with a group of experts. The experts proposed nine names, one-third of which were from abroad. However, the ministry then published a list of 12 members. The ratio of Czech and foreign experts remained intact, but three more people were added to the committee, such as the director of the collection of modern and contemporary art at NG, Tomáš Vlček, and a member of the scientific council at NG, Václav Pavlíček. If Knížák is in the competition, they would then evaluate the project of his current superior.