The establishment of the Central European Forum in Olomouc will not be supported by the state

Olomouc - The Olomouc Museum of Art remains alone in the fight for the establishment of the Central European Forum, which plans to create a unique exhibition of visual arts from Central Europe. In January, the ministry did not recommend granting the project a half-billion grant but promised to find another financing solution. Now it has communicated that the project is closed on its part, and the Olomouc city hall is also stepping back due to complications with the land.
     The project encountered difficulties in January when the ministry refused to assign it a half-billion grant. "From our side, the project is closed. If the museum wants to apply for funds from the Norwegian funds, it must resolve the land issues. Without that, granting a subsidy is impossible," said the spokesperson for the Minister of Culture, Stanislav Brunclík.
     In order for the plot for the Central European Forum to be complete, the museum must acquire the last 400 square meters, which are held by entrepreneur Miroslav Barnet. The city had previously planned to help acquire them by exchanging them for the Edelmann Palace in the Upper Square. That can no longer be counted on. The contract was tied to the subsidy, but the ministry decided not to provide it.
     Originally, a decision on supporting the project from the side of Olomouc was to be made by the end of June. However, the police intervened in the complicated dispute over the land, accusing the court expert of distorting the report. Due to this, the city would incur a loss of 23 million crowns from the transaction. "I have no information that Mr. Barnet wanted to increase the entire transaction by more than 20 million, so the city cannot do anything about it. The contract will almost certainly expire," said Novotný.
     Together with the Olomouc governor Martin Tesařík, they wanted to organize a meeting in Prague with the Minister of Culture Jiří Besser, but it ultimately did not happen. "We received a signal that the decision is final, so the trip seemed unnecessary to us," added Novotný.
     The Museum of Art has not yet given up on the idea of the Central European Forum. Its lawyers and entrepreneur Barnet have been negotiating for over a month about whether they can reach an agreement among themselves. However, they do not want to provide details about the discussions.
     Thanks to the Central European Forum, a unique architectural space worth about 500 million crowns was supposed to be created on Denisova Street in Olomouc, where leading artists from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary would exhibit.