The Foundation of Czech Visual Art, which manages Mánes, has a new supervisory board

Prague - The Board of Trustees of the Czech Fine Arts Foundation (NČVU), which operates the Mánes exhibition hall, has elected a new supervisory board. Newly joining are lawyer Lucie Tycová Rambousková, attorney David Krofta, and economist Milan Bufka. At the same time, for personal and health reasons, A. Libor Kaláb resigned from the position of vice-chairman and member of the Board of Trustees. This was reported today by the chairman of the foundation's board, Daniel Netušil.

NČVU was recently criticized by representatives of the association Skutek and the then-chairman of the supervisory board, Antonín Janák, for poor financial management, lack of transparency, and evasion of internal control. They also objected to the lack of elections for the foundation's Board of Trustees. The supervisory board of NČVU previously criticized what it deemed an unfavorable lease of a guesthouse near Lake Mácha to the son of the foundation's long-time director Dagmar Baběradová, as well as the sale of real estate. Baběradová resigned at the end of April.

The Czech Fine Arts Foundation was established in the 1990s as the successor organization to the artistic organization Dílo and later to the Czech Art Fund Foundation. It is meant to serve artistic associations, emerging artists, and to assist them. For this reason, it has received significant artworks and properties from the state, primarily the Mánes building in the center of Prague. Some artists have long criticized the foundation, and in 2013, the initiative Mánes for the Artists organized a protest against its functioning. In April of this year, the association Skutek followed up on these activities, objecting that the Board of Trustees refused to call elections before the end of all its members' terms, thereby extending its mandate for another term.

The supervisory board highlighted poor financial management by NČVU in March of this year. This involved the lease of a guesthouse in Staré Splavy near Lake Mácha to the son of NČVU director Baběradová. Until last autumn, Miloš Štorkán was paying a rent of 200,000 crowns for seven months of the year, from April to the end of October. During the winter months, the foundation again managed the estate. According to Janák, the supervisory board had also been requesting for more than a year that Baběradová and the Board of Trustees announce a public tender for the guesthouse lease. Baběradová only responded in January of this year after being assigned this task by the Board of Trustees.

In 2016, the foundation also sold an apartment building in Nusle below market value, as recently reported by Deník N. According to a five-year-old appraisal at the time, the building and land had a value of 46 million crowns, but the foundation sold it for 28 million crowns. Subsequently, the newly renovated apartment was acquired by Baběradová's son, Miloš Štorkán, for just under 130,000 crowns.

"I am convinced that in order to start putting things in order, we must obtain an accurate picture of what really happened at NČVU. Therefore, the legal audit will focus primarily on issues related to the sale of certain properties, the reconstruction of the Šítkov Water Tower, the reconstruction of the Mánes building, and further leases in this building. Thus, we will approach a selected law firm to create such an appraisal for us,” said Netušil. He added that the newly elected members of the foundation's supervisory board are, in his opinion, indisputable experts and moral guarantors of the foundation's oversight activities.