The National Gallery will have a new depository for 1.3 billion CZK

Prague - The National Gallery Prague is set to build a new storage complex in Jinonice, Prague, for 1.3 billion crowns. The gallery announced this in a press release today. The construction is expected to be completed within seven years from the start of the project. According to the design by the studio JIKA-CZ, the complex will not only provide care for artworks but also include a publicly accessible area - an open storage and public educational programs.

The complex will include restoration studios, laboratories, and a digitization center. Selected artworks will also be placed in the exterior, in a publicly accessible sculpture park.

"The indoor environment will benefit from a combination of the latest systems, but will also use traditional materials, such as raw bricks, which have excellent thermal storage properties. The building will be designed not only with regard to the sensitivity and value of the exhibits but will also be environmentally friendly," said chief engineer Jiří Slánský. The winning project, along with other finalists from the competition, will be displayed in the mezzanine of the Veletržní Palace, and visitors will be able to see them after the gallery reopens.

The National Gallery Prague has six buildings in the capital with permanent exhibitions or displays, and it also holds exhibitions at the Valdštejn Riding School, which belongs to the Senate. The gallery manages the most extensive collection of visual art in the Czech Republic. It is an institution with more than two hundred years of tradition, collecting, documenting, studying, exhibiting, publishing, and mediating artworks from all visual arts fields from antiquity to the present. In 2019, state grants for NGP's activities amounted to approximately 332 million crowns, according to the annual report of the Ministry of Culture.