The magistrate committee recommended placing the epic in Moravský Krumlov

Prague - The Culture Committee of the Prague City Hall today recommended to the representatives to place the Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha in the castle in Moravský Krumlov. The paintings would remain there until Prague builds its own facility for them. Jan Wolf (KDU-ČSL), the committee chairman, and councilor Hana Třeštíková (Praha Sobě) informed ČTK today about this. The opposition, together with Wolf, opposed this during the meeting. The paintings were exhibited in Krumlov from the 1950s until 2011, when the then-management of the capital city took them away. Moravský Krumlov is interested in exhibiting the epic.

The cycle consists of 20 large canvases that Mucha painted from 1910 for another 18 years and dedicated to Prague. Since 2010, the epic has been a cultural monument. The paintings are currently in the deposit of the Gallery of the Capital City (GHM).

"The main factor is that this is the quickest solution. Moravský Krumlov has long declared that the paintings could be exhibited as early as next summer. For me, the most significant role is time,” said Třeštíková.

However, it is not yet decided whether the epic will be relocated to Moravský Krumlov. The committee is merely an advisory body to the representatives. The order to relocate can be given by both GHM and the Prague councilors. "However, I will want the council to decide. But we certainly won't manage to present it at the September meeting," Třeštíková said.

The committee voted for the recommendation with a margin of six to five, where the representatives of ODS and ANO disagreed with the recommendation, along with Wolf. He has long criticized the potential relocation. "I still believe that the epic should not leave the city limits. The castle in Krumlov will undergo reconstruction and construction, and I don't think the paintings will be safe there; we are talking about cultural property worth 3.5 billion crowns,” Wolf said. According to him, the relocation could also influence the outcome of the court regarding whether the canvases belong to the city or the Mucha family.

The mayor of Moravský Krumlov, Tomáš Třetina (TOP 09), said at the committee meeting in May that Krumlov is asking Prague for the favor of temporarily exhibiting the epic in its castle. "You can't imagine how people in Krumlov perceive the epic; they perceive it as their own,” he said then. He also stated that the city purchased the castle in 2016, wants to renovate it, and has applied for a grant. The exhibition spaces, where the epic would be, have already been renovated.

The Prague City Hall is still searching for a location for the Slav Epic's placement. Currently, it is examining spaces that belong to the city. Discussions have also been held about the castle in Zbraslav, and Prague 2 proposed to exhibit it in the Vyšehrad train station building. In the past, the city planned to construct a separate pavilion for the paintings, either in Letná behind the Ministry of the Interior or at Těšnov. Most recently, Prague planned to convert the Lapidarium at the Exhibition Grounds.

The first 11 canvases of the epic were exhibited in 1919 at the Klementinum in Prague and enjoyed success at exhibitions in New York and Chicago from 1920 to 1921. The entire epic was exhibited for the first time in 1928 at 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 stored in a deposit. They were not exhibited again until 1963 in the castle in Moravský Krumlov. However, after 1989, the castle, which previously housed a railway vocational school among other things, fell into decay.