The new National Museum will be seen by people in the summer, exhibitions will start in a year

Prague - During the summer, the tarp that has covered the reconstructed historical building of the National Museum for months will be removed, allowing people to see its cleaned façade. In the autumn, the first visitors might view the empty museum in a special mode. A connecting tunnel between the two museum buildings has been excavated, and the courtyards are being covered. Work is also being done on the interiors, and the museum management is considering changing the composition of the pantheon, which consists of statues of significant figures from Czech history. In an interview with ČTK today, the director of the National Museum, Michal Lukeš, said this.

Gilding and restoration works are being completed, and work is also ongoing in the gilded dome, which shines brightly on sunny days. After reconstruction, it will be accessible and will offer an extraordinary view of Prague. The interiors are being repaired with wall paintings, installations are being completed, and refurbished parquet floors are being returned. "According to the construction management, the building is nearing its climax," says the director. Currently, there are 300 to 400 workers on site. "And that will increase," he noted. The deadline remains the autumn of 2018, when the Czech-Slovak exhibition is expected to open the museum, commemorating the centenary of the founding of Czechoslovakia and the 200th anniversary of the museum.

During the construction, the museum is preparing new exhibitions, and Lukeš is contemplating modifying the lineup of personalities whose statues adorn the museum's pantheon. "The arrangement of the statues was more or less the concept of Zdeněk Nejedlý from the 1950s, not the original one. In consultation with the museum council, we propose that it take on a First Republic configuration after its opening," said the director. Figures such as Julius Fučík or Fráňa Šrámek would be "removed," while Heinrich Clam-Martinic should return.

"We agreed that we would return the emperor and empress, who were the only ones removed by the First Republic. They were displayed not as giants but as rulers. Moreover, the emperor contributed a considerable amount to the museum. We have come to a consensus that perhaps the time has come for them to return," the director, a trained historian, believes. The new concept of the pantheon will be assessed by the Ministry of Culture and, according to Lukeš, should be acknowledged by the government.

The most visible aspect for passersby, however, is the museum's façade. "We just had a discussion with heritage specialists on site, as we are addressing the visibility of bullet marks (on the façade) from 1968 and how it will look optically. It is already clear that the façade will be light, as it was in 1891. The infill after the shots has thus turned into a negative - originally, they were lighter than the surrounding darkened façade. We are currently dealing with how much we should highlight them," he described just one of the many moments of the work taking place on the building.

He was reportedly surprised that the façade was not just blackened by emissions before the repair, but it had been impregnated with soot in the 1950s. "With the thesis that what is black is old. After a discussion with heritage specialists, the façade was cleaned and the soot was removed," he stated.

The reconstruction of the museum began in the second half of 2015; Lukeš mentioned that despite the complexity of the work, especially due to the heritage character of the building, the contracted budget of 1.6 billion crowns is still being maintained. Additional work does not exceed 1.5 percent of the price. As the scaffolding is expected to disappear from the building in July or August, so will the advertising, which has brought the museum approximately five million crowns. Heritage specialists allow similar advertisements if there is an image of the covered building on the tarp that is mandatory. Twenty percent of the area can then be used for commercial purposes.