Prague – In the technical room of the Kampa Museum on U Sovových mlýnů street in Prague, electrical wiring caught fire this afternoon. The combustion products entered the exhibition areas. However, the initial information that paintings would need to be removed due to this has been disproven. Firefighters were able to ventilate the spaces quickly. Rescuers treated one man at the scene, said Jana Poštová, a spokesperson for the rescue service. According to Prague councilor Jan Chabr (TOP 09), damage to the ventilation and electrical installations will amount to several tens of millions of crowns. The damage to the paintings is currently unknown, Chabr told ČTK. The cause of the fire will be determined by the investigator.
Chairman of the Jan and Meda Mládková Foundation, Jiří Pospíšil, told ČTK that restorers would assess the artworks. If they were affected by clean white smoke, they might not need cleaning. However, if it was dark smoke, they would likely need treatment, he said.
The fire started around 14:15, and the flames were brought under control shortly before 15:00. "There is a technical room on fire where the distribution box is located; the flames are not spreading, however, the combustion products unfortunately penetrated the exhibition areas. We are trying to ventilate those products using positive pressure ventilation," said firefighter spokesperson Martin Kavka after. There were pressure cylinders in the technical room, which firefighters carried out. A police spokesperson told ČTK that over 100 people had to move to a safe area. The navigation lock in front of the building was closed during the intervention.
"After consulting with museum experts, it was ultimately not necessary to move the paintings. We were able to ventilate the space quickly. The fire is completely extinguished," the firefighter spokesperson stated around 16:15, and by 17:30, firefighting units began to gradually return to their bases.
The damage will be assessed by the fire cause investigator in cooperation with museum staff, the exhibition curator, and the collection owners. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation, Kavka announced.
According to Pospíšil and Chabr, the fire occurred during repairs in the technical room. Presumably, someone was welding hinges, and the room's paneling caught fire from the flames, Pospíšil stated. The fire completely destroyed the technical room, Chabr added.
The building had to be properly ventilated, so police secured the area. "They are guarding the exhibits; the whole place is open," said police spokesperson Lucie Drábková to ČTK. According to her, the police remained on-site until around 18:15.
Pospíšil is grateful to the firefighters for saving the building and valuable collections, but he wants to start negotiations with Prague, which owns the building, to open the Kampa Museum at least partially as soon as possible. He plans to provide more information at a press conference on Friday morning. If the museum remained closed for an extended period, it would be another significant economic blow following the COVID-19 crisis and its associated closure, he added.
According to Chabr, part of the museum will be able to operate even now, as the museum has two air conditioning units. One of them was not damaged. "However, concerning the wing that is visible from the Vltava River, I fear it will take a fairly long time. Optimistically, it may take a month to a month and a half; in a worse case, even longer," the councilor said.
The establishment of the Kampa Museum was made possible by the art collector and patron Meda Mládková (100), who lives in a different part of the museum than the one that burned. She is safe, Pospíšil stated. Mládková, in exile in the USA, together with her husband, economist Jan Mládek, amassed an extensive art collection. Since 1989, she has been seeking a suitable space in Prague to create a museum where she could make her collections accessible to the public. Since its opening in 2003, the Kampa Museum has become an important institution with significantly increasing visitor numbers in recent years.
The Kampa Museum's collection focuses primarily on 20th-century art, with occasional overlaps to the 19th and 21st centuries. A cornerstone of the collection is the collection of works by František Kupka (1871 to 1957), one of the most important pioneers of abstraction. It includes 215 oil paintings, studies, and drawings. Thanks to the donation from Meda Mládková, it is owned by Prague, and the museum has long-term administration over it. The museum also houses the collection of Jiří and Běla Kolář and a collection of Central European art.
The Sovovy mlýny, where the Kampa Museum is located, were affected by a once-in-a-century flood in 2002. Thanks to the efforts of museum employees and volunteer helpers, they were able to open to the public in a short time.
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