Original sofa by Kaplický goes up for auction

Prague - In June, an original piece of furniture designed by architect Jan Kaplický will be sold at auction. The sofa was seized by enforcement from a company that planned to build villas near Konopiště Castle according to the designs of Czech architects, including Kaplický. However, the project remained in the study phase, likely due to the crisis, as the houses were not selling as the investor intended. Nonetheless, they are still being offered for sale on the internet.
    The auction will take place on June 7 at 2:00 PM at the National House in Vinohrady, and interested parties may view it one hour earlier. The starting price for Kaplický's sofa is 396,000 crowns, which is one third of its estimated price, which is over one million crowns, reported ČTK from the law firm Mališ Nevrkla Legal.
    The Konopiště Resort project was developed by the company Resort Living, which introduced it shortly after Kaplický's death in January 2009. The extensive construction was to include more than 100,000 square meters in an exclusive location near Konopiště Castle. Two buildings with 80 apartments, 15 family houses, and 21 villas were to be built there. The main architect was Markéta Veselá, and other architects included besides Kaplický, Svatopluk Sládeček, Ján Stempel, and Zdeněk Fránek.
    The project was divided into phases; the architects, according to whose designs construction was to occur in the first phase, were paid for their studies, and the project received a building permit based on their work. However, in the second phase, funds were already lacking; for example, architect Lucie Kavánová was in a lawsuit with the developer, and the auction of Kaplický's sofa was ordered to cover the court-awarded fee she obtained.
    The production and sale of the sofa were agreed upon by the director of the development company Resort Living, Martina Hollasová, and the owner of Kaplický's copyrights, his wife Eliška. The enormous round-shaped sofa with built-in lights and a television was to be produced in black or white leather, and according to the company's website, its selling price starts at 650,000 crowns, with colored variants costing up to 950,000 crowns.
    Kaplický designed the original and had it made for his London apartment. Based on this license, only one piece of the sofa in white was produced. "Due to the failure to meet financial obligations, Mrs. Kaplická terminated the license to the company Resort Living for the production of additional pieces of Kaplický's sofa, so no other sofa will be produced under this license," stated Daniel Mališ, the legal representative of architect Kavánová.