Vilu Tugendhat will be adorned with a new statue, reminding of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Brno - The garden of the listed Tugendhat villa in Brno will be adorned with a new sculpture. The city council has decided to place a work titled "90th Anniversary" by the young Slovak sculptor Michal Moravčík in front of the villa. The sculpture takes the form of a dovetail that can be disassembled. It will commemorate the division of Czechoslovakia, which took place at this UNESCO monument, Mayor of Brno Roman Onderka told reporters today.
    The city is currently negotiating with the author to purchase his work. Moravčík named the sculpture "90th Anniversary" because he wants to "thematically highlight the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak state", said Rostislav Koryčánek, director of the House of Arts of the City of Brno, to ČTK today.
    The work should be installed at the villa by May at the latest, as it will be one of the sculptures that will decorate Brno during the Brno - city in the middle of Europe festival. "It will truly be a new event Sculpture in the Streets - Brno Art Open 2008," Onderka said. Seven sculptures will be exhibited in Brno from May 23 to June 27, and the organizers will bring them from all over Europe, according to Onderka. The city council approved the logo of the exhibition today - it takes the form of seven dots on an imaginary map of Brno.
    Most of the sculptures will be placed in Brno's squares. The only exception will be the "90th Anniversary," with which the city council plans for the garden of the Tugendhat villa. The agreement on the dissolution of the Czechoslovak federation, which the sculpture is supposed to commemorate according to Onderka, was signed here in 1992 by former Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus and his Slovak counterpart Vladimír Mečiar.
    The Tugendhat villa is the only Czech modern art monument listed on the UNESCO cultural heritage list. It is currently in poor technical condition, and a heritage restoration is being prepared. It was supposed to start back in 2002, but due to disputes among the teams that participated in the selection process for the designer, it has been repeatedly postponed. Now, designers are fine-tuning plans for the structural stabilization of the villa in cooperation with heritage preservationists.
    According to the plans of the renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the villa was commissioned by the spouses Gréta and Fritz Tugendhat, who came from families of prominent textile entrepreneurs. The family used the house briefly, until 1938, when they emigrated to Switzerland and then to Venezuela due to the Nazis. Recently, descendants of the original owners requested the return of the villa. They are concerned about the delay of the necessary repairs. The city council rejected the request to return the monument.