The post of the director of NG is also being sought by a former advisor of Bém

Prague - The position of director of the National Gallery is being contested not only by art historian Jiří Fajta, head of the Moravian Gallery in Brno Marek Pokorný, and economist Vladimír Rösel, but also by former advisor to then Prague Mayor Pavel Bém, Michail Odarčenko. The selection committee today opened the envelopes containing the applications at the Ministry of Culture and advanced all four candidates to the next round. This was announced to ČTK by the ministry's spokesperson Stanislav Brunclík.
    Interviews with them will begin on May 5, and the new General Director of the NG is expected to be appointed by June 1.
    The current director Milan Knížák, who has led the gallery since 1999, did not apply for the selection process. The trio of Fajt, Pokorný, and Rösel participated in last year's competition. At that time, the selection committee recommended to Minister of Culture Václav Riedlbauch to appoint Fajt, but he did not do so, leaving the decision to his successor. The new minister Jiří Besser (from TOP 09) canceled the competition and announced a new one.
    Odarčenko, as the fourth candidate for the head of the National Gallery, comes as a surprise to many. For people who have been engaged in culture for a long time, it is an unknown name, said Marta Smolíková, director of the organization ProCulture, to ČTK. The members of the selection committee reportedly did not know much about him either.
    Publicly available sources reveal that Odarčenko served as head of Bém's advisors. He was also a co-author of a bill that reclassified graffiti from a misdemeanor to a criminal offense. From 1999 to 2007, he was the vice-chairman of the board of the Foundation for the Language Gate at the primary school in Vojtěšská Street, Prague. Since leaving the Prague City Hall, he has worked as a consultant in the field of business and management.
    The Ministry of Culture has faced criticism for not rushing the selection process and that its conduct is not sufficiently transparent. Committee members, who met today with Minister Besser, agreed that the composition of the committee would be officially published and that they would vote publicly on the new General Director.
    The committee includes, among others, curator Jiří Machalický, dean of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University Michal Stehlík, art historian Lubomír Slavíček, economist Radek Špicar, and art historian Ladislav Kesner Jr.
    Milan Knížák is expected to remain General Director until the end of August. Between June 1 and August 31, Knížák and his successor should hand over responsibilities.

    List of committee members:


    - Anna Matoušková, Deputy Minister (Chairwoman of the Committee)
    - Ladislav Kesner, Ministerial Committee Member for Gallery Issues
    - Eva Dittertová, Chairwoman of the Association of Museums and Galleries of the Czech Republic
    - Michal Stehlík, Dean of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University
    - Lubomír Slavíček, Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University
    - Radek Špicar, Director of External Relations at Škoda Auto a.s.
    - Jiří Machalický, art historian
    - Michaela Vojtová, Economic Deputy Minister of Culture
    - Hana Červenková, Advisor to the Minister of Culture for Personnel
    - Marek Kupsa, Director of the Department for Strategy and Grant Policy at the Ministry of Culture

Candidate profiles for the position of General Director of the National Gallery (listed alphabetically):

    Jiří Fajt (born 1960 in Prague) - art historian, former head of the Collection of Old Art at the NG. He studied at the Czech Agricultural University in Prague (1983) and art history at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague (1994). In the late 1980s, he worked as a window cleaner, later serving at the Lapidarium of the National Museum in Prague (1988 to 1993), and from 1994 to 2000 he was employed at the National Gallery, leading the Collection of Old Art from 1995. Since 2000, he has mainly been active in Germany, lecturing at universities in Berlin and Prague. Fajt specializes as an art historian in medieval art. He has curated numerous exhibitions, including the well-known exhibitions Magister Theodoricus, court painter to Emperor Charles IV, and Charles IV, Emperor by the Grace of God. A critic of the current head of the NG, Milan Knížák, he also participated in last year's competition.


    Michail Odarčenko (born 1955) - consultant, former advisor and later head of advisors to the Prague mayor, having seen six post-November mayors of the capital from the early 90s until his departure in 2007 under Pavel Bém. As an assistant to the mayor, he was responsible for urban planning and heritage preservation, among other things. In the 1990s, he was a board member of the Prague Steamship Company, and from 1999 to 2007, he was the vice-chairman of the board of the Foundation for the Language Gate. A holder of a doctorate in philosophy, during his time at the city hall, he dealt with issues regarding graffiti, participated as a lecturer in various lectures and television discussions, and contributed to the amendment of the criminal law that reclassified graffiti as a criminal offense in 2001. At the same time, he advocated for defining areas for legal works.


    Marek Pokorný (born 1963 in Humenné, Slovakia) - director of the Moravian Gallery in Brno. He studied at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, worked as a journalist, art critic, and curator of contemporary art. He contributed to the cultural sections of newspapers such as Prostor, Lidová demokracie, Mladá fronta Dnes, and the magazine Týden. He founded the first magazine dedicated to the post-November art scene, Detail. In the 1990s, he organized numerous exhibitions, including those of Jana Mert and Krištof Kintera, and held contemporary art exhibitions in the foyer of the Chamber of Deputies. He spent three years in Rome. In 2003 and 2004, he was the chief curator of the House of Lords from Kunštát in Brno. Under his leadership, the Moravian Gallery acquired, for example, the Jurkovič Villa in Brno-Žabovřesky and the birthplace of Josef Hoffmann in Brtnice near Jihlava, participates in the successful organization of museum nights in Brno, and plans a generous reconstruction of the Governor's Palace. He also took part in last year's competition for the head of the NG.


    Vladimír Rösel (born 1966) - economist. Founder, partner, and managing director of Lombard Advisory Partners, which deals with investments, private capital management, company restructuring, and real estate trading. According to the commercial register, he is also the head of a consulting company in the field of investments and finance called Fieldstone Private Capital Group - organizational unit, which is founded by the London firm of the same name. According to available information, Rösel began his career as a financier in 1991 at Bankers Trust in London. It is said that he previously also served as a lecturer at the NG in Prague, and according to the gallerist Jiří Švestka, he has experience from the Guggenheim Museum. In 2006, the weekly Euro labeled him as an expert on the aviation industry; his Lombard Advisory Partners participated successfully in the restructuring of the traditional Czech aircraft engine manufacturer, Walter. He also participated in last year's competition for the head of the NG.