The Tugendhat Villa will be presented at an exhibition in New York

photo: David Židlický

Brno - The Tugendhat villa in Brno will be presented to architecture enthusiasts in New York at the beginning of October after a successful exhibition in Israel. Interested parties will be able to view photographs of the functionalist building at the Czech House in Manhattan and learn all about its history. At the same time, representatives of Brno will submit it to international competitions for the Modernism Prize and the Europa Nostra Award. Brno will support the exhibition in New York with 870,000 crowns, said Mayor Roman Onderka (ČSSD) to journalists today.
     Museum officials in New York collaborated with the Brno city council during the reconstruction of the Tugendhat villa. "They really liked its architecture. Therefore, I contacted the ambassador to the USA, Petr Gandalovič, and we agreed on the exhibition at the Czech House in New York," said Onderka. A similar exhibition has already taken place in Israel and, according to the mayor, received great success.
     Besides exhibitions abroad, city representatives want to present the villa to the public and professionals at trade fairs. They also want to promote it by submitting it to two international competitions. The funds for the exhibition and nominations for the competitions were approved today by the Brno City Council.
     The villa attracted visitors at the end of June with a screening of the film Kristián featuring Oldřich Nový and Adina Mandlová. The villa has been accessible to the public after reconstruction since this year, and interest in tours is extraordinary; tickets have been sold out several months in advance. The restoration began in January 2010 and lasted about two years. The costs of restoration reached 174 million crowns. Tugendhat is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.