The Ministry of Culture will purchase a Cubist collection for 30 million CZK

Prague – The government today approved the purchase of a collection of Cubist objects for 30 million crowns. They come from the Bauer Villa in Libodřice, where they were collected and made accessible by the Czech Cubism Foundation. Some of the items from the collection will remain in the villa, some will be moved to the Museum of Decorative Arts, and others will be set aside for foreign loans. ČTK was informed about this today by the press department of the MKČR.

Among the most valuable parts of the collection are furniture designed by architect Vlastislav Hofman, sketches from the early phase of Czech Cubism, and everyday objects that were never produced in series like other movements of modern art, but only as custom-made pieces, and very few of the surviving works are now in private ownership.

Significant acquisitions also include other offered sets of Cubist furniture, such as furniture works by Pavel Janák or Ladislav Machoň, as well as an extensive collection of ceramics by leading Cubist creators Vlastislav Hofman, Pavel Janák, Rudolf Stockar, Jaroslav Horejc, and others. Many of these items were known only through period reproductions, and their discovery was an art-historical event. The villa itself, once the home of landowner Bauer, which underwent an expensive renovation, also has its charm.

"The offered collection is of extraordinary cultural value in its entirety. In a global context, it is unparalleled and belongs to the internationally most admired areas of movable cultural heritage of the Czech Republic. The offer to purchase this collection is entirely exceptional, as works of Czech three-dimensional Cubism are almost no longer found in the Czech or foreign market, especially not in this high quality,” said Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek.

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague received the offer to purchase the collection in 2016 from the founder of the Czech Cubism Foundation, Pavel Šafář, who operates the Cubist design museum in the Bauer Villa in Libodřice. The collection includes 14 furniture sets comprising 59 items and 160 pieces of ceramic and metal works. In 2018, the valuation of the collection of Cubist objects was set at 30.83 million crowns by expert opinions, which is also the amount that the Ministry of Culture will pay for it.

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague owns the largest collections of Czech Cubist design. The collection that the state will now purchase will significantly enrich the collections, the ministry states. The furniture sets designed by Vlastislav Hofman between 1910 and 1912 represent a fundamental component in the continuity of the development of applied art by the main figures of Czech Cubism.