National Museum signed a contract with the winner of the tender for reconstruction

Prague - Today in Prague, representatives of the companies Metrostav, Průmstav, and IMOS Brno signed a contract with the National Museum (NM) for the reconstruction of its historic building after a year of delays associated with the tender process. As the M-P-I consortium, they won the selection process, and their offer of 1.352 billion CZK excluding VAT was evaluated by the selection committee as the most advantageous. The museum will hand over the historic building to the builders on April 20 in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture. The reconstruction is expected to take 42 months.
    According to the schedule, the tender winner was supposed to start work last year, but disputes over the selection of the construction company delayed the reconstruction. The unsuccessful competitor was the Václavské náměstí 68 consortium, led by the company Strabag. After being disqualified from the competition due to failure to meet the conditions for preparing the bidding price, the consortium initially filed an objection and then a complaint with the antimonopoly office to review the legitimacy of the exclusion.
    The Office for the Protection of Economic Competition rejected the objections, and the decision has been valid since last week. The preliminary measure preventing the museum from concluding a contract with the winner has also expired.
    "From the project documentation, we know what awaits us, but with a building under heritage protection and as a national cultural monument, we obviously do not know what surprises may arise during the work. We will start with the building's passport (construction documentation) and protection of artistic elements," said Petr Zábský, a representative of Metrostav, to ČTK after signing the contract. He is the director of Division 9, which specializes in the reconstruction of heritage sites. Recently, for example, it was the Klementinum.
    According to the General Director of the National Museum, Michal Lukeš, the work will take three and a half years - the building is to be handed over by October 15, 2018, although it will be without exhibitions. "Right now we are announcing a public architectural competition that should be completed this year," he told ČTK. He intends to negotiate with the winning consortium about the possibility of shortening the deadline. "But not at any cost," he added.
    Silent witnesses to the reconstruction will be the skeleton of a baleen whale, wrapped and suspended under the ceiling of the large hall, whose dismantling experts did not recommend, and the mounted African elephant and Rothschild giraffe. They have been assembled in the museum and cannot be taken out of the building through the doors. They will survive the repair in crates with sensors to monitor climate conditions.
    However, one exhibit awaits relocation, which is stored in a glass container with a fixing fluid made of glycerin and formaldehyde. This is the brain of historian, politician, and writer František Palacký, stored in the wall of the Pantheon. According to Lukeš, it is to be moved in May, probably to the František Palacký and František Ladislav Rieger Memorial in one of the apartments on Palackého street.
    The goal of the reconstruction is to stop the deteriorating condition of the historic building, its architectural elements, works of art, technical infrastructure, and engineering networks. The repair will restore original functions and improve the utility value of exhibition, display, and operational spaces. By connecting the historic building with the new museum building, a complex will be created, interconnected in both technical and operational ways, with a total exhibition area of 11,000 square meters.
    The historic building is in a state of emergency; it has not been reconstructed since its construction in 1891. It has undergone only three major repairs, the necessity of which was caused by external influences. At the end of World War II, it was hit by a bomb, in August 1968 the facade was damaged by bullets from the Warsaw Pact troops, and in the 1970s, the static integrity of the northeastern wing was disrupted by explosions during the construction of the metro.