The owner of Mája is considering requesting an extension of the consent for the placement of butterflies

Prague - The owner of the Máj department store in Prague on Národní Street is considering asking the city hall for an extension of the consent to place moving butterflies on the facade. Karel Samec, the media representative of the Amadeus group, which controls Máj, said this to ČTK. Prague heritage officials only permitted the installation of several-meter-long butterflies by artist David Černý for one year. The works were installed on the building on May 18 and 19 last year. According to Samec, Černý supports the application submission.

The several-meter-long butterflies, with a body resembling a Spitfire fighter plane, have mechanical wings that flap. According to Černý, it is a tribute to Czechoslovak fighter pilots who served in the British army during World War II. The work has elicited mixed reactions from the public and experts.

"Currently, we are considering the possibility of submitting a request for an extension of the placement of David Černý's butterflies at Máj. The author of the work supports the extension of the placement period, and we perceive positive responses not only from the vast majority of Máj's visitors but also from the feedback of the broader public, including the expert community," stated Samec. The spokesman for the Prague city hall, Vít Hofman, mentioned that the heritage department has not yet received any request for an extension of the installation.

One of the critics of the work was, for example, the civic association Klub Za starou Prahu. The association's chairman, Richard Biegel, labeled the butterflies as an example of typical kitsch. Last year, he pointed out that the heritage department of the Prague city hall approved the plan despite the fact that the National Heritage Institute rejected the sculptures.

The department store at the corner of Spálená and Národní was built on the site of the neo-Gothic Šlik Palace according to the design of Miroslav Masák, John Eisler, and Martin Rajniš from the Liberec studio SIAL, which was founded in 1968 by Karel Hubáček, the author of the Ještěd transmitter. Máj opened its doors to customers on April 21, 1975. In 2006, the Ministry of Culture declared the building a cultural monument.

In May 2022, extensive reconstruction of the building began at a cost of 4.5 billion crowns, and the department store reopened to customers on June 24 last year. Máj now offers shops, restaurants, and an experiential exhibition across nine floors. Last month, the real estate investment fund Realita, managed by ATRIS, announced the purchase of a decisive stake in the firm owning the Máj department store. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. Until then, Máj was owned by Amadeus Real Estate, which, according to previous information from the Seznam Zprávy website, has the same ultimate owners as the ATRIS fund, namely brothers Václav and Martin Klán.