Open Letter for the Dismissal of Five Directors of Ústí Galleries

Dear Prime Minister, Dear Minister of Culture,
We are addressing you with this open letter to support the initiative of the responsible cultural public expressed in the petition "Against the intention of the leadership of the Ústí nad Labem Region to dismiss the directors of galleries and museums."
Culture does not currently hold the position or role in this country that it historically deserves. This is fundamentally evident in the legal status of public cultural institutions, especially those that were transferred under the jurisdiction of the Regions in 2001. These bodies, led by political representatives, may not have any understanding or interest in how to competently manage and govern the cultural assets that have become their property. National institutions and qualified renowned experts (National Gallery, National Museum, Academy of Sciences, etc.) have lost influence at both the regional and national levels. The danger arising from this situation lies in the handling of national cultural heritage – irreplaceable artistic wealth.
Museums as public institutions have been established since the 19th century, but collections and picture galleries have been made accessible to the public and placed in public spaces long before that, even dating back to the beginnings of humanity (e.g., cave paintings in Lascaux). They are scientific institutions that continuously protect, care for, acquire, supplement, process, and monitor their condition. They also engage with the lay public, providing information, advice, cultivating knowledge, and fostering connections to the place, monitoring natural communities, aiding in preservation, and partnering with curators and foreign entities in international projects and loans, publishing, organizing exhibitions, conducting public education, stimulating interest and awareness, and providing support and certainty in knowledge about nature and human culture. This is concentrated, long-term, patient work in the scope of knowledge, facts, historical contexts, and monitoring conditions. Quite often, or rather typically, experts dedicate their entire careers to a given topic or locality, and therein lies the quality, value, and irreplaceability.
Even in the conditions of a recruitment process for a sports coach, the applicant must possess the relevant Coaching License. The recruitment process for a museum/gallery director states professional qualifications only after the requirement for thorough understanding of legal and legislative issues. The selection committee, composed of two politicians and two officials, creates an opportunity for filling positions with their own “cadres.” The Czech Museum of Fine Arts in Prague, previously managed by the dismissed PhDr. Ivan Neumann and significantly rebuilt at the cost of the governorship of MUDr. David Rath into an information center of the Central Bohemian Region, no longer exists in Prague! Another case of mismanagement in unqualified hands is the Mánes Exhibition Hall! Where will incompetent leadership in museums and galleries lead? How do we care for culture? Why is our architectural and building heritage continuously disappearing?
A specific, exceptional, and fundamental case is the Benedict Rejt Gallery in Louny. Its collection of Czechoslovak modern, constructivist, and neoconstructivist art is completely unique (established during the totalitarian era by PhDr. Jan Sekera) and tied to the place through personalities and artists such as Vladislav Mirvald, Zdeněk Sýkora, Kamil Linhart, or Emil Filla. On the initiative and through the efforts of the current director, PhDr. Alice Štefančíková, a strong and impressive architectural work has emerged under very complicated conditions, reconstructing a Baroque brewery, a project by architect Emil Přikryl, a professor at the School of Architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, holder of the Honor of the Czech Chamber of Architects and the Award of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic for his contribution in the field of architecture.
This gallery also promises a significant and lucrative investment in the reconstruction of a property that has been brought into a state of emergency due to the incompetence of authorities, in which the founder is leaving it; and preparations suggest that it will not lead to responsible removal of the causes, but may indeed lead to further damage, with no one being able to uphold the quality of such architecture?!
The recently established "Emil Filla Foundation" declares the operation of the original Emil Filla Memorial Hall in the castle in Peruc. This presupposes the possession of works from the estate of Emil Filla - with collection items from the aforementioned Benedict Rejt Gallery in Louny. Top manager of experiential tourism (Medieval Dětenice Resort) Pavel Ondráček, now a member of the Board of Trustees of the Emil Filla Foundation, purchased the castle in Peruc and established the aforementioned Foundation with its new owner and chairwoman of the supervisory board, Dominika Matušová. It aims to support modern and contemporary art and become part of a commercial business plan! What's troubling in this matter is that just from Peruc, paintings by Emil Filla were stolen some time ago; thanks to the prompt reaction of the director of the Benedict Rejt Gallery, the works were seized from the criminals and returned to the gallery.
According to Act 122/2000 Coll. on the protection of museum collections, a "Museum is an institution that acquires and collects natural objects and human creations for scientific and educational purposes, studies the environment from which they are obtained, creates collections that it permanently preserves, catalogs, and processes professionally, allows their utilization and accessibility, and the aim of these activities is not to achieve profit. A gallery is a museum specialized in fine art collections. These institutions are financed from public budgets."
Elected representatives have been entrusted with political power by their voters, including the care for cultural heritage. It is their duty to care for these entrusted values, to protect them, and to preserve them for future generations. Their actions do not correspond to this. We do not see even a hint of qualified procedures and responsible solutions. As is apparent, and as indicated by further statements, it is not about responsible management of assets, the public interest, or culture; it is primarily about personal interest, draining resources from public funds. In this regard, a responsible figure is, understandably, an unpleasant obstacle.
We therefore turn to you with a request for a review of the causes of these shortcomings rooted in the laws and measures that permit such behavior. In essence, they sanction actions that are detrimental to society, at the expense of the role of public legal and professional institutions and their purpose and mission. It is imperative to address this gross irresponsibility with competent legislative steps.
We ask you to work towards the cancellation of the resolution of the Council of the Ústí nad Labem Region regarding the dismissal of the directors of the museum in Chomutov, the museum in Děčín, the gallery in Litoměřice, the gallery in Louny, and the gallery in Most, and the cancellation of recruitment processes for filling these positions retroactively.
Dear Chairman, dear Minister, we turn to you as the highest authorities to intervene in this matter of societal importance. We place our trust in you that our public and collective effort will be concluded by your authority and that you will not allow the values and expert opinions to be trivialized and undermined by political representatives.