The National Museum has taken over the RFE/RL building

Prague - The symbolic key to the former headquarters of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was handed over today from its representatives in Prague to the General Director of the National Museum (NM) Michal Lukeš. At the same time, heavy machinery began removing concrete barriers from the building in downtown Prague, which will facilitate traffic in the city center. Today marked the end of police security around the building and the second entrance from the subway to Vinohradská street was opened.
    The museum will open the new building on August 15 with guided tours. The first exhibition, symbolically named Be Free!, will be launched on November 17 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the beginning of the Velvet Revolution.
    The barriers were placed around the building following the terrorist attacks on targets in the USA in 2001. They will be removed in connection with the recent relocation of the radio station to a new building in Prague 10. The removal will last until June 11; Mayor Pavel Bém (ODS) also anticipates repairs to the road, sidewalks, and landscaping.
    Today’s press conference was also attended by former Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek (ODS), whose government, by a resolution in November 2006, transferred this former seat of the Federal Assembly to the National Museum. The new building will increase the exhibition capacity of NM by more than 3,000 square meters, expanding services to include a restaurant, a museum shop, and a conference and multimedia hall with a capacity of nearly 500 people.
    "During the general reconstruction of the historic building from 2011 to 2015, space will be provided for all our presentation activities,” said Lukeš. Both buildings will be connected into one unit by an underground tunnel. Construction will begin in the first phase of the reconstruction along with the initiation of the relocation of the main road into tunnels behind the museum, thus restoring NM as part of Wenceslas Square.
    "Since the opening in 1891, the National Museum has not expanded this significantly," said Topolánek, who considers the handover of the keys an act of historical justice. He wants to advocate for a solution to the traffic situation that was complicated by the insensitive construction of the main road. "However, coordinating all construction projects is complicated,” he noted.
    "A total of 2,800 days were blocked by 295 concrete barriers from entering this public space,” calculated Bém, who stated that today is the first real step beginning the revitalization of the city center and the transformation of the main road into an urban boulevard. In response to a question from CTK, he confirmed that the Public Transport Company is also considering the possibility of direct access to both buildings from the subway vestibule.
    According to the spokesperson for the Prague police, Jolana Číhová, police had guarded the building since 1999 and checked more than 5,300 people. "In six cases, police had to use force, detained eight suspect individuals, and dealt with several dozen offenses,” the spokesperson said on the website of the Prague police. According to Číhová, 43,350 police officers took turns guarding the radio station.
    When RFE/RL presidential advisor Pavel Pecháček handed over the symbolic key together with Administrative and Personnel Director Beth Portaleová, he reminded that this week marks 16 years since the idea to relocate this station to Prague was conceived.
    "We want to enable the general public to view the building as quickly as possible, which they could only see from the outside for decades,” said Lukeš to reporters. Guided tours will highlight the architectural and structural features as well as significant historical events that took place here in the 20th century. The Be Free exhibition will convey the atmosphere and life in Czechoslovakia during the latter half of the past century. It will address propaganda and the dissemination of free information, and various perspectives on individual events and the atmosphere of the time.
    "It will combine three-dimensional objects, period posters, archives, photographs, and sound recordings into one image of the era,” noted Lukeš. He added that the exhibition is being prepared by the museum in collaboration with the Military Historical Institute and the Senate. From the beginning of December, another exhibition will present Czech achievements at the Olympic Games. During the reconstruction of the historic building, interested parties will be able to view the most interesting items from the museum's collections in the new building.