In Pilsen, a unique apartment is for sale from the successors of Adolf Loos

images taken from the real estate agency Klika website

Plzeň - An exceptional monument-protected apartment with interiors by collaborators or successors of the significant world architect Adolf Loos has appeared among the real estate offerings in Plzeň. Its selling price is 3.2 million crowns. The apartment, covering an area of 175 square meters, is located in a brick building on Skrétova Street, ČTK discovered. According to conservationists, there are about ten similarly valuable and well-preserved apartments in Plzeň.
    "The interior is likely designed by Loos' collaborator Norbert Krieger or possibly Leo Meisl. The arrangement of the most significant spaces in the apartment has been preserved in its original condition," stated the real estate agency Klika on its website.
    "This is something luxurious and extraordinary. There will be about ten apartments of this quality in Plzeň. I hope someone who really appreciates it will buy it," said Karel Zoch from the city's conservation department.
    "We have not sold such a unique interior before. There are up to ten interested parties. Among them are fans of architecture and Adolf Loos," said real estate agent Michal Šulc. Only a very individual enthusiast or investor will appreciate its great historical value. According to Šulc, the price is high and has already been reduced once; the market value of a similar apartment in Plzeň without a unique interior is around 2.5 million crowns.
    "The owner has fallen into financial distress and wants to sell the apartment. She treated the apartment very decently and sensitively. There won’t be many people who would enthusiastically enter such an interior, as the buyer must keep at least 75 percent of the things in their current form, including handles and switches," stated the head of the conservation department of the city council, Petr Marovič. The price is decent, but the buyer must invest at least another two million crowns into the renovation of the apartment. "Just refurbishing the windows facing the garden will cost 400,000 crowns," he noted. Any renovation will have to be consulted with conservationists.
    According to Zoch, experts are examining the authorship of the apartment. "There is a clear inspiration from Loos, and from that, we deduce that it was designed by one of his students. However, there are elements that Loos rejected. But in terms of architecture and design, it is a very successful realization," he stated. According to Zoch, Loos' interior would be sold for tens of millions of crowns. For instance, a small coffee table could be auctioned for about 700,000 crowns.
    The apartment was commissioned for his family by businessman Otta Herrmann. They moved into the apartment at the beginning of 1935, their teenage son Jiří went to America before the war, and the parents were deported in 1942 and presumably perished in a extermination camp.
    There are eight documented and preserved Loos interiors in various stages of damage in Plzeň. The city is currently renovating an apartment at Bendova Street 10 and at Klatovská Street 12, which will be opened to the public in 2015 when Plzeň becomes the European Capital of Culture. The city owns two more apartments, but has not yet started investing in them due to a lack of funds. Loos received his first commission in Plzeň in 1907. With interruptions, he worked there until his death in 1933, and he completed 13 interiors. Experts consider the collection to be extremely valuable even in the context of the entire European architecture of the 20th century.