The National Museum is preparing tenders for the reconstruction of the building

Prague - The National Museum in Prague (NM) will announce tenders next year, among other things for the reconstruction of the historic building, which has been closed since July. The costs have been estimated at 3.3 billion crowns.
     "The building is completely empty and closed; from a fire safety perspective, it is no longer suitable for public operation. We are working on new exhibitions, and we plan to present the first proposals to the public around February. We are currently announcing a tender for a partial reconstruction of the new building, which will begin in early spring, so that the exhibition operations can be expanded in the fall and the new Natural Science exhibition 'Noah's Ark' can be ceremoniously opened," said NM General Director Michal Lukeš to ČTK.
     The tender for the connecting corridor between the historic and new buildings will be announced in the spring, with the reconstruction of the main building starting in early summer. "It was originally supposed to happen earlier, but this year, our head of investments at the Ministry of Culture, Miloš Philipp Štrajt, instructed us to reduce the project by approximately 400 million crowns and halt the already ongoing construction permit process. Therefore, we had to revise the prepared project and start the construction process with all the stamps again, which, through no fault of our own, caused us to lose several months," added Lukeš.
     The museum will retain its original appearance even after the renovation, and the dome will be accessible. Visitors will be able to admire the new exhibitions starting in 2016. They will be able to enter both inner courtyards, which will be covered. Offices and storage rooms will disappear from the building, increasing the exhibition spaces together with the adjacent building of the former Federal Assembly to 11,300 square meters.
     This year, the building was being cleared out, with exhibits and thousands of volumes of books disappearing. The last major move took place in early November, when a giant sloth, kudu, okapi, bison, whose last weight was over half a ton, all headed to the storage facility in Horní Počernice. A special casing will allow a skeleton of a sperm whale and taxidermy specimens of an African elephant and Rothschild's giraffe to observe the five-year reconstruction. These were installed in the museum between 2002 and 2004, assembled directly in the hall, and cannot be removed through the doors. They will endure the repairs in crates equipped with sensors to monitor climatic conditions.
     Experts did not recommend dismantling the skeleton of the so-called whale, which was originally considered. "We will replace some screws, treat parts, and preserve them because the skeleton will likely remain suspended from the ceiling in its original location even after the building is repaired," said Miloš Anděra, curator of the zoological collection, to ČTK.
     During the reconstruction, the museum management will focus on exhibitions at the Czech Museum of Music, the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African, and American Cultures, the National Memorial at Vítkov, the Ethnographic Museum - Musaion, and in the new building of the former Federal Assembly.
The historic NM building was opened on May 18, 1891. A large number of valuable exhibits, permanent displays, and temporary thematic exhibitions have attracted nearly four million visitors over the past ten years. However, the building no longer meets current requirements. It lacks wheelchair access, fire hydrants, sanitary facilities, and engineering networks are not compliant. The building's condition has not only suffered from wear and tear. At the end of World War II, it was hit by an aerial bomb; in August 1968, the façade was damaged by bullets from the guns of Warsaw Pact troops, and in the 1970s, excavation for the subway route compromised the building's structural integrity. The noise from the main thoroughfare also has a negative impact.
     "It is a kind of dream of ours to rank among the twenty best museums in the world after the renovation. With its unique location and collections, we have the potential for it. It depends only on us whether we can achieve that," said Lukeš previously.