Minister Staněk announced a tender for the director of the National Gallery

Prague – Minister of Culture Antonín Staněk (ČSSD) today announced a selection process for the General Director of the National Gallery in Prague. The new director is to be appointed by the end of February next year. Staněk stated this at his evaluation press conference, on which he leaves the head of the ministry after a year in office. He dismissed the former director of the National Gallery, Jiří Fajt, in mid-April, and this move marked the beginning of considerations about his departure from the position. Staněk justified Fajt’s dismissal with economic missteps and filed a criminal complaint against him, which Fajt denies and is defending himself legally.

Details about the competition are available on the website, requiring knowledge in the field of museums and galleries and at least three years of experience in a managerial position, ideally with experience in managing a large cultural institution, not specifically leading a large gallery or museum institution. Applications for the first round must be submitted by September 30, in the second round selected candidates will develop a proposal for the concept of NGP by 2025, and the Minister of Culture should then appoint the new director of NGP by February 29, 2020. The ministry did not disclose who will sit on the selection committee.

The leadership of the Social Democracy party, at a time when voices for Staněk's dismissal were first heard from the cultural community, instructed the minister to announce the competition by the end of May. A few days later, the ČSSD forced Staněk to resign, and only then did he state that he would not fulfill the political assignment by announcing the selection process and wants to prepare the competition as well as possible from a professional perspective. At the end of May, he also mentioned that he would leave the materials for announcing the competition for his successor. However, that successor is still unknown, as President Miloš Zeman wants to decide on the nominee from the Social Democracy party, Michal Šmarda, only in mid-August.

Along with Fajt, Staněk also dismissed the director of the Museum of Art in Olomouc (MUO), Michal Soukup, in April, and has filed a criminal complaint against both due to the management of both institutions. A competition for the MUO director was already announced at the beginning of July, but representatives from the Museum of Art in Olomouc stated that they consider the competition announcement premature, as Soukup's dismissal is not valid according to them.

The dismissal of both directors has provoked criticism, with part of the artistic community demanding the minister's resignation. Staněk ultimately submitted his resignation, but President Miloš Zeman did not accept it. The ČSSD insisted on his departure, and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) therefore sent a proposal for Staněk's dismissal to the Castle at the end of May. The president only decided on it at the beginning of this week. He stated that Staněk should not be punished for exposing shortcomings in institutions established by the ministry and that it should wait for an investigation into the filed criminal complaints. Fajt told ČTK last week that the police had not contacted him since filing the criminal complaints.

Today, Staněk cited as the reason for announcing the selection process on the last day of his tenure at the ministry that he feels obligated to the taxpayers – that he continued to work in his position even after announcing his resignation. "I will hand over the department, albeit figuratively, as the new minister has not yet been appointed, in a condition that, I think, is good and I have nothing to be ashamed of," he said today. According to him, nothing was "swept under the rug" during his tenure at the ministry. He believes that the new leadership will continue to uncover "black holes, money flows, and faucets".

During the past two months, Staněk exceptionally allocated sums in the tens of millions of crowns. At the beginning of June, the National Library received six million crowns for the rescue of books threatened by acidic paper, and in the same month, the National Library auctioned a medieval document worth more than 18 million crowns, thanks to a contribution from the ministry, with a starting price of three million – despite the fact that several months earlier the ministry did not provide an amount three times smaller for a medieval document that experts believe should be in state collections. In July, the ministry announced that it would contribute to the accessibility of documents protected by copyright in public libraries. The first investment is 10.5 million crowns, and the state is expected to allocate 20 to 30 million crowns per year for this project.