Baán: Museum of Fine Arts loans safe

Budapest, February 16 (MTI) – The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest currently has some 3,000 artworks on loan, more than half of which are lent to other museums or collections and the rest are with state bodies or on a few occasions, with private companies, László Baán, the museum’s director, told MTI.

In connection with a recent case when paintings were lent to Brand Lab Kft, a company associated with Árpád Habony, an informal advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Baán said the works were lent under safe conditions and returned after three months unharmed.

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He noted that since 2010 such loans do not require ministry approval.

Baán said he knows Habony well and was a witness at his wedding, but this fact had “no influence in this case”. The paintings were lent for a film shooting, which is a reasonable request, and were kept under safe conditions, which the museum checked, he added. The museum was under no pressure, it acted rationally and gained 500,000 forints (EUR 1,620) from the transaction, Baan said, adding that most of the artworks on loan were usually lent “for practically no charge” and there are many borrowers who do not pay for them at all.

Baán said however that seeing all the outbursts in this case the Museum agrees not to lend to private companies in future.

Last week the opposition Együtt party filed a complaint in the matter and said the paintings lent to Habony were in a value of 300 million forints and they were kept at Habony’s former unofficial address at a flat in central Budapest’s Szerb Street, where they were not safe.

As we wrote, last week government office chief János Lázár responded to questions by journalists on this issue, saying “let’s be happy that in today’s world, in the 21st century, there are people who are interested in 18th-century art”.

Tibor Szanyi, an MEP for the opposition Socialists, told a press conference on Tuesday that he thinks there are “masses of people interested in 17-18th-century art” in the European Parliament, so maybe the Museum of Fine Arts could lend paintings to them, too. He said he hoped that Habony could help such a transaction “with expert advice, as he already seems to know the ropes.”

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters