The owners of Máj requested an extension for the placement of butterflies on the facade of the building

Prague - The owners of the Máj department store on Prague's National Avenue have requested the building authority to extend the duration of the movable butterflies on the facade of the building. In response to a query from ČTK, the media representative of the department store, Karel Samec, provided this information without further details. The several-meter tall movable sculptures have been on the facade of the building since last May, and the original permit will expire at the end of August. Máj is owned by the Realita investment fund, managed by ATRIS, whose ultimate owners are brothers Martin and Václav Klán.

The several-meter butterflies have mechanical flapping wings and their bodies mimic the Spitfire fighter aircraft used by the British Air Force during World War II. According to the artist and creator of the installation, David Černý, this is intended to honor the Czechoslovak fighter pilots who served in the RAF during World War II. The butterfly installation sparked discussions last year about whether such prominent elements belong in the center of Prague.

The extension will be decided by the building authority of Prague 1, which acts independently in this matter under the so-called delegated powers of state administration, without interference from elected politicians. The council of the first municipal district recently approved a resolution stating that they have no objections to the further placement of the sculptures at Máj. "Prague 1, however, has no decision-making authority in this matter; it depends on the decision within the building process, so the municipal district just took note of it," added the spokesperson for Prague 1, Karolína Šnejdarová.

The butterflies have been criticized in the past by organizations such as the civic association Club for Old Prague. Its chairman, Richard Biegel, labeled the work as an example of typical kitsch. Last year, he pointed out that the heritage preservation department of the Prague City Hall approved the intention, despite the fact that the National Heritage Institute rejected the sculptures.

The owners of Máj had the sculptures placed on the facade in connection with the completion of a large-scale reconstruction that began in 2022, which cost 4.5 billion crowns, and the building reopened to visitors on June 24 of last year. Now, Máj offers shops, restaurants, and an experiential exhibition across nine floors. At the beginning of this year, the Realita investment fund, managed by ATRIS, announced the purchase of a controlling stake in the company owning the department store. The transaction value was not disclosed. Until then, Máj was owned by Amadeus Real Estate, which, according to earlier information from the Seznam Zprávy website, has the same ultimate owners as the ATRIS fund, namely brothers Václav and Martin Klán.