Taking skyscrapers home to America An interview with American diplomat, Nancy Goodman Brinker MúzeumCafé 19. author: Eszter Szablyár – Was it hard for you to leave all that behind when in 2001 George W. Bush appointed you ambassador to Hungary? – On the contrary. I could hardly wait to be in Budapest and see Hungary with its progressive spirit, represent my country and promote diplomatic relations between the two countries. In addition, with […]
An active life among works of art – a portrait of restorer Miklós Móré MúzeumCafé 19. author: Orsolya Radványi Eighty-one-year-old Miklós Móré was fortunate to be among the first in Hungary to study restoration. His career began at the beginning of the 1950s when the profession was developing and experiencing major changes. Before the Second World War artists restored works of art and there was no official training for restorers in Hungary. Due to […]
Zsófia Frazon, museologist of MaDok, contemporary documentation and research network MúzeumCafé 19. author: Marianna Berényi The aim is the documentation of today, namely museum analysis in relation to manifestations of contemporary everyday life and the collection of relevant materials – thus spoke Zoltán Fejős, director of the Ethnography Museum, when MaDok was launched at 2002 conference in Kaposvár. Since then the MaDok project has moved beyond “the ethnographers’ sand-pit”. Tenders […]
Márton Kálnoki-Gyöngyössy, Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of National Resources MúzeumCafé 19. author: Erzsébet Marton After studying archaeology and history at Budapest university, Márton Kálnoki-Gyöngyössy wrote his Ph.D. dissertation in 2002 on the history of money in late medieval Hungary. He has been a member of the Hungarian Numismatics Society since 1997 and was a teaching assistant at the university from 2000 to 2004, then he became a senior lecturer. […]
Standing on the shoulders of giants István Zombori, Director of Szeged’s Móra Ferenc Museum MúzeumCafé 19. author: Gellért Rajcsányi István Zombori is familiar with the traditions of one of Hungary’s most distinguished provincial museums. That is in no way surprising, since he has worked in the museum for thirty-seven years. The Móra Ferenc Museum came about together with the modern town of Szeged following a flood of 1879 when 5458 buildings were destroyed and […]
All the world’s a villa The Gizi Bajor Theatre Museum of the National Museum and Institute of Theatre History MúzeumCafé 19. author: Ádám Sztankay The Gizi Bajor Theatre Museum is located in Budapest’s 12th district in the former villa of actress Gizi Bajor. Today the building, which was renovated in between 2000 and 2002, also has a display about important events. One of the most popular actors of his time Ede Újházy happened to rent a room in a […]
A moment of rebirth The Vaszary Villa as a symbol of Balatonfüred’s new life MúzeumCafé 19. author: György Halmos Since it opened in May more than 15,000 people have viewed the exhibitions of the Vaszary Villa in Balatonfüred. That doesn’t say much until you consider that this small town on the northern shore of Lake Balaton has a population of just 13,000. In connection with the opening of an István Nádler exhibition in the […]
The triumph of arts over taboos Ars Homo Erotica in Warsaw’s National Museum – a curator’s view MúzeumCafé 19. author: Paweł Leszkowicz The Ars Homo Erotica exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw comprised more than 200 works of art from antique times to the present century – Greek vases of youths and images of Sappho. All the works related to the theme of homosexuality. The perspective was based on an alternative amorous and artistic standpoint, which […]
What is a Hungarian mansion worth if it is a museum? Reconstruction of former estate centres – an impossible task MúzeumCafé 19. author: Zsolt Podhorányi The social importance of the Hungarian nobility is indicated by a figure which is almost incredible at first sight. A benchmark estimate reveals that at present there are about 3,000 stately homes in Hungary and in addition some 1000 are known to have been destroyed. The future of the majority of those still existing is […]
Ede Mahler, the founder of Hungarian Egyptology and Assyriology MúzeumCafé 19. author: Balázs Irsay-Nagy assistant, ELTE Dep. of Egyptology Ede Mahler was appointed to a university professorship one hundred years ago. Mahler (1857-1945) while studying in Vienna he discovered the ancient Orient. He returned to Budapest in 1896, his textbook Essentials of Egyptian appeared in 1899. His first opportunity for a study tour to Egypt only came in 1910, although from 1902 he was […]