Buildings of the Hungarian National Museum close and that is good news

The Hungarian National Museum is forced to close some of its buildings. And that is good news. We will explain why below.

All but four institutions to close

According to Magyar Nemzet, the director of the Hungarian National Museum, the former secretary of state responsible for culture, László L. Simon announced the decision on a meeting of the staff. Based on that, all but four rural member institutions of the museum need to close between 1 November and 28 February, 2023. Below we list the exceptions:

• the Rákóczi Museum in Sárospatak,
• the King Mathias Museum (Mátyás Király Múzeum) in Visegrád,
• the Castle Museum in Esztergom (Esztergomi Vármúzeum),
• the Archaeology Department and its bases.

Magyar Nemzet writes that the reason of the closures is the rising energy prices. However, the buildings of the institutions will be modernised in the winter period, they added. The Hungarian National Museum need to pay six times more for electricity and three times more for gas in 2022. As a result, its energy expenditures will increase from HUF 120 million (EUR 283,600) to 620 million (EUR 1.5 million). To make matters worse, in 2023, that sum will rise to more than 1 billion forint (EUR 2.36 million).

18 is the new 23 in the museum

János Csák, the minister of culture, prescribed a 25 percent energy reduction for the government institutions including the Hungarian National Museum. That is why the leadership of the museum decided to close some of its rural buildings and institutions for the winter. The director of the museum ordered teleworking for the employees of the institutions affected.