Government buys legendary Hungarian painter Munkacsy’s Golgotha

The Hungarian government has purchased 19th-century painter Mihály Munkácsy’s monumental piece Golgotha, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Wednesday.

The government paid Hungarian-born American art collector Imre Pakh 3 billion forints (EUR 9.3m) for the painting, Gergely Gulyás told a press conference.

The purchase means that all three pieces of Munkácsy’s famous “Christ Trilogy” are now owned by the Hungarian state.

The state had owned Ecce Homo! (1896), the third painting in the trilogy, for years and acquired Christ Before Pilate (1881), another of the three, from Canada’s Art Gallery of Hamilton for 5.7 million US dollars in 2015, with funding from the National Bank of Hungary’s programme to buy national art treasures.

In 2015, talks between the Hungarian government and Pakh on the possible sale of Golgotha to the state fell through and Pakh signalled he was ready to have the painting removed from Debrecen’s Déri Museum.

The government later initiated a procedure to place Golgotha on a list of protected artworks to prevent it from being permanently removed from the country. Pakh in response ordered the painting to be veiled from public view.

In 2016, the Hungarian heritage authority decided to give Golgotha protected status. Pakh appealed the decision, but his claim was rejected.

The following year, the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, ordered a retrial in the case.

Last year, the government and Pakh entered into negotiations on the painting’s purchase.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI