The minister has agreed with the Museum of Art on a competition for SEFO

Olomouc – Minister of Culture Antonín Staněk (ČSSD) today reached an agreement with representatives of the Museum of Art Olomouc on the preparation of an architectural competition for the design of the new Central European Forum (SEFO) in the center of Olomouc, as well as on resolving obligations related to the project. SEFO, which aims to capture the post-war development of visual art in Central Europe, will cost 600 million crowns. According to Staněk, the architectural competition should not preclude any potential participants.

Without resolving the current contractual relationships, launching a new competition is, according to Staněk and museum representatives, unthinkable. The legal obligations arise from a ten-year-old project by architect Jan Šépka, which the Museum of Art has still been counting on for implementation.

According to Staněk, a former mayor of Olomouc, it is necessary to communicate with the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) during the competition preparation, as it organizes the competition by law. "In order to be prepared in such a way that it does not exclude any potential participant. If we join forces and are interested in having SEFO in Olomouc, I believe we can reach a successful conclusion," Staněk stated. According to regional governor Ladislav Okleštěk (ANO), who facilitated today's meeting, the competition must not discriminate against or favor anyone.

Staněk stated that the museum must first resolve its current contractual relationships related to the SEFO project. The museum has already been working on this for some time. "It is a complicated matter, and I have declared the Ministry of Culture's readiness for much more intense cooperation in resolving contractual relationships," he added.

According to the deputy director of the Museum of Art, Ondřej Zatloukal, the main issues that need to be resolved regarding SEFO have been identified, and a further course of action has been agreed upon. "For us, it was indeed a very complicated and Gordian knot that needs to be untangled in cooperation and a timely manner. It is certainly not an easy task, but we hope that we will manage to resolve the obligations," Zatloukal said, adding that the museum will work on preparing the architectural competition.

According to a previous statement by the ČKA, if the competition is announced, the museum must resolve the rights of the original contractor of the contract. Otherwise, an authorized architect would not be able to take over the contract, stated ČKA chairman Ivan Plicka. He warned that when announcing a new competition, the ČKA would consider Šépka's participation unrealistic, as he has been dedicated to the project for ten years and would be favored.

According to Šépka, this is a non-standard situation. At the end of March, he told ČTK that the solution is not to announce the competition. If a competition is announced and he is excluded from it, he will turn to the court for discrimination. The architect wondered why the ministry insists on a competition at a time when there has been a study for ten years and a contract that arose from a commercial competition has been signed.

Staněk argues for political responsibility and transparency in the project. The ministry claims that the museum repeatedly violated public procurement law in the past when searching for the design of SEFO. The museum's leadership denied this. Due to developments around the SEFO project, dozens of museum employees called for Staněk's resignation in March.