<em>To support the Mánes Gallery, a benefit concert and auction are being organized.</em>

Prague - The Prague gallery Mánes will end its activities for at least two years with a charity concert and auction of artworks from its depositories, as it awaits renovation. In January, a tender was announced for the restoration of this significant monument of Czech architecture. The companies that made it to the final selection will be announced during the charity event, which will take place on March 17. Martin Pavala from the Czech Visual Arts Foundation (NČVU), which owns the building, informed ČTK today.
    "The sole purpose of the charity event - auction and concert, is to assist the ongoing renovation," said Pavala. The renovation, which is expected to last until autumn 2013, will cost approximately 150 million crowns. The foundation aims to cover a third of the repairs from its own funds, while securing a bridging loan for the rest and seeking sponsors. Nine companies applied for the tender, and a decision is currently being made among six bids.
    The charity event will feature an auction of paintings, sculptures, and graphics from the foundation's depository. Approximately 330 original works will be auctioned starting at a minimum price of 5,000 crowns. The collectors' auction is organized in cooperation with Galerie Art Praha, and a catalog will be published for it. Interested parties can view the offered works from today until the end of the week, and the auction will take place on Sunday, March 11.
    The musical charity event will be held a week later. The concert at Mánes will feature artists such as Dan Bárta and Robert Balzar Trio, Lenka Dusilová with Beata Hlavenková, Vladimír Mišík, Vlastimil Třešňák, and the duo Nebřenský-Binder.
    The basic entrance fee is 300 crowns. Tickets will be available through Ticketstream and at the venue on the day of the concert. Supporters of Mánes can also express their support by purchasing a donor club ticket starting at 900 crowns. This will be exchanged at the charity event for a designer gift ticket with a thank-you note from Studio Najbrt. A surprise from the foundation's depository will be prepared for even more generous donors.
    "After the renovation, Mánes aims to be a gallery that has undeniable potential to become one of the most significant institutions of its kind in Europe, as it once was, with new multifunctional halls offering programs across artistic genres, a restaurant and café that invite people to meet and enjoy culinary and social experiences, terraces overlooking the Vltava River where the history of Czech modernism has passed, and a piano that Jaroslav Ježek played," promise the foundation members.
    The gallery's repairs were originally scheduled to begin in June 2010, but the renovation was postponed twice last year. According to Pavala, the March deadline is now binding. Last year, the restaurant operation at Mánes ended, and the exhibition activities were gradually halted.
    The building is to be modified according to the project of the HMArchitekti studio, which does not plan radical interventions. The authors intend to return Mánes architecturally and functionally to the 1930s, when the functionalist building was designed at the request of the Mánes Association of Visual Artists by Otakar Novotný, a student of the famous architect Jan Kotěra.