The court will return to the dispute over the Slavic Epic

Prague - The District Court for Prague 1 will return today to the dispute over the Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha. The City of Prague possesses the paintings, but the painter's relative, John Mucha, claims in the lawsuit that Prague has never become the owner of the cycle of paintings. According to him, the city did not fulfill the author's condition to create separate exhibition spaces for the canvases.

The District Court began addressing Mucha's lawsuit in January 2017. At that time, it was dismissed, and the ruling was confirmed by the appellate panel. However, the Supreme Court annulled the judgments last May. For the second time, the court started addressing the lawsuit in November. Both parties then stated that they did not oppose negotiations for an amicable solution.

The previous leadership of the Prague magistrate wanted to place the Slav Epic in the Lapidarium building at the Exhibition Grounds. However, Prague postponed its reconstruction in mid-September, stating that it would be subject to further negotiations. The reason was the rising cost of construction work, which made the project proposal no longer relevant.

The Lapidarium building is another of many plans on where to place Mucha's famous cycle. Previously, the city planned to build a separate building, either in Letná behind the Ministry of Interior or in Těšnov. Recently, there has also been discussion about a castle in Zbraslav, and Prague 2 proposed displaying it in the Vyšehrad railway station building. The Culture Committee recently recommended to the representatives to place the cycle in the castle in Moravský Krumlov, where the paintings were exhibited from the 1950s until 2011. They should wait there until the city prepares a suitable building.