The court prohibited Prague from signing a contract for the placement of the epic in Savarin; it will appeal

Prague - The District Court for Prague 1 issued a preliminary injunction ordering Prague not to enter into a contract with the company Crestyl for a future lease agreement for space in Savarin on Wenceslas Square, where the city wants to temporarily place the Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha. This was communicated in a press release by the chairman of the Society for the Slav Epic in Prague, Ondřej Pecha. The painter's granddaughter Jarmila Mucha Plocková approached the court, arguing that the city's actions are among other things unprofitable and subordinated to commercial interests. The capital city intends to appeal against the preliminary injunction, said the mayor's deputy Jiří Pospíšil (TOP 09) to ČTK today. The cycle consists of 20 large canvases that Mucha painted over 18 years starting from 1910.

The Epic has been surrounded by long-standing disputes over its ownership. While the painter's relative John Mucha recently withdrew a lawsuit after years of agreement with the magistrate, the other heiress Mucha Plocková has filed her own lawsuit in recent months to determine ownership. According to her, the agreement with John Mucha is disadvantageous for the city and particularly does not resolve the ownership issue of the Epic definitively. She is now seeking through the preliminary injunction that Prague should not be allowed to conclude a contract with Crestyl until the court decides on her lawsuit regarding ownership.

"The decision was issued at the request of Alfons Mucha's granddaughter. She had been overlooked in the previous negotiations. The city’s actions, in her opinion, were uneconomical with the public budget, subordinated to private commercial interests, and completely disregarded the author's wish, which conditioned the donation of the collection of canvases to Prague on its placement in a building purpose-built for that exhibition. The lease agreement would also restrict Prague in displaying the work," the society writes in its statement.

The city disagrees with the court's ruling. "We respect the decision, but we will file an appeal against it; the arguments and reasoning are, in our opinion, unfounded, fundamentally there aren't any. The contract with Crestyl is not concluded; we are still working on its wording, so the argumentation in the reasoning is about something that has not yet been signed," said Pospíšil.

He added that the potential ownership would not be jeopardized even by signing a contract with Crestyl. "We are not taking any steps that would potentially harm any ownership rights; we are neither selling the Epic nor destroying it, if I may say so in jest," Pospíšil stated.

If the appellate court grants the city’s appeal against the preliminary injunction and cancels it, the city will continue to negotiate with Crestyl about the temporary lease of Savarin. If the appeal is denied, the city will litigate according to Pospíšil. If it does come to court, it would delay the return of the Epic from Moravsky Krumlov, where it is currently exhibited, back to Prague, he added.

Mucha gifted the completed work to Prague on the condition that it would provide dignified exhibition space, but he did not set a deadline. The canvases are currently at the chateau in Moravsky Krumlov, with the loan approved by Prague councilors until 2026 two years ago.