The architects' dispute over the restoration of the Tugendhat villa will end in a week

Architect Jan Sapák

Brno - The Regional Court in Brno today received the final evidence materials in the dispute between groups of architects who previously sought a project to repair the Tugendhat villa. The winning tender company Omnia sued the second architect Jan Sapák in the competition due to his statements about the overpricing and manipulation of the competition. Its managing director submitted economic results to the court today, according to which the company's turnover after Sapák's statements was the worst since its establishment. Omnia is demanding an apology from him. The judge postponed the proceedings, and the ruling will be announced on Thursday, August 28.
According to the indictment, Sapák repeatedly stated in the press that the project of the winning company Omnia is too expensive and drastic, comparing it to the plastic surgeries of American singer Michael Jackson. Omnia claims that this and other statements harmed it and demands an apology. Compared to previous years, when the company reported a turnover of around 4.5 to 6.5 million crowns, its turnover fell by 1.5 million crowns in 2007, the year after Sapák's statements, representing the worst result since the company's inception.
The defense asserted in court today that it cannot be proven that there is a causal relationship between the statements and the drop in sales. The indictment primarily did not take into account the assessment of the situation in the heritage market or the business risks faced by the company's founders.
The architect who placed second in the tender relies, among other things, on the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS), which confirmed that there were errors in the selection process. The main dispute is whether Omnia and its partners fulfilled the conditions of the tender. The leadership of the city of Brno is now waiting for a ruling from the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS). Although it issued a statement several years ago that the magistrate did not err in selecting the winner, the Brno regional court and subsequently the Supreme Administrative Court this year stated that the magistrate should have excluded the later winner of the tender - the association Omnia - from the competition. ÚOHS now must decide again and take the courts' opinions into account.
Omnia has from the beginning demonstrated the credentials of an external architect. The other side argues that the document was created only after the application was submitted for the tender. The company's managing director Vít Tichý denied this today. "We have proven that the tender was not manipulated, which was also confirmed by the spokesperson of the anti-corruption police and twice by the antimonopoly office. We had all the documents in order," Tichý said in court today.
Tichý conversely attacked Sapák's statements, in which he stated that the estimated price of the project around 150 to 170 million crowns is exaggerated and that in reality the villa can be repaired for a sum several times lower. "Such a price is unrealistic. Sapák failed to include a number of necessary repairs and features in his budget," Tichý added.
The Tugendhat villa is the only Czech monument of modern art listed in the UNESCO cultural heritage list. Its repair was supposed to begin back in 2002. However, due to many disputes among experts and politicians, it has not yet started. The conservationists from the regional office issued the last decision necessary for issuing a building permit only a few months ago.