What kind of items should be purchased with the planned 30 billion forints of the National Bank’s Art Purchase Programme?
MúzeumCafé 41.
Ferenc Gerhardt, deputy governor of the Hungarian National Bank and head of the Programme’s Advisory Body, said that the initiative to launch the programme was part of the bank’s medium-term strategy for social responsibility, the aim of which was to buy back the most important works of art with a Hungarian connection which had come into foreign ownership during past historical periods, as well as to keep items of Hungarian cultural value within the country.
Art historian László Mravik believes that the amount is insufficient to fully address the issues involved, though it is a large sum to allocate for an idea lacking any seriously thought-out conception. The last time a major amount was designated for state purchases of artworks was in the 19th century in connection with the Millennium Celebrations of 1896.
According to István Monok, director of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’s Library and Information Centre, it’s an old dream of libraries in Hungary to have a financial fund which can be turned to when unique items missing from public collections appear on the market, such as important documents forming part of the written cultural heritage, for the purchase of which there are usually insufficient financial means.
The presidency of the Association of Hungarian Provincial Museums, having learnt that the National Bank is designating 30 billion forints for the purchase of artworks over four years, has gathered suggestions from its 32 member institutes. All the suggestions are closely connected to the relevant museum’s collection and would represent outstanding regional, national and even European value. Furthermore, it is clear that their plans concern not only the fine arts as the conceptions are being elaborated with the overall character of individual museums in mind.