The Museum of Fine Arts closes to reopen in 2018

It was built during the turn of the century, it attracted more and more visitors from year to year, it had a central role in the city’s cultural life, but a lot of time has passed since the last major renovation. As a result, the technology and the Román Hall (declining since the World War II.) will be renewed. The embellished museum will reopen in 2018.

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The renovation

The museum and the Rembrandt exhibition will be closed on February 15, to open again after a three-year renovation.
One aim of the works is to renovate the declining Román Hall, which functioned as a stock room since the World War II. The renewal of the grandiose hall (decorated with huge murals) will be preceded by careful restoration works.

The majority of the works of art stored here is already in wooden crates, and conservators started to work on the blackened, dusty walls of the hall. The place resembles a church: the naves, the murals, and the copy of the gate of the cathedral of Freiburg reinforce this feeling.

The plans of the renovation were made by the experienced István Mányi, along with Mányi Studio. An exhibition of the most important works will be seen in the Hungarian National Gallery until the museum will be reopened in 2018.

The completely new collection will select and separate the artworks according to the timeline; thus, the Museum of Fine Art will most likely display works created before the 19th century, while the New National Gallery and the Ludwig Museum will display modern and the contemporary ones.

The creators

The creation of the Museum of Fine Art was decided in 1896, and the construction works started in 1900, according to the designs of Albert Schikedanz and Ferenc Fülöp.

Schikedanz was born in Bielsko-Biala in 1846. He was educated in Karlsruhe and Vienna, too. After 1868, he could be found in Pest, working for Miklós Ybl.

He had a central role in the formation of Heroes’ Square; moreover, all his major works are connected to it. The building of the Műcsarnok was completed in 1895, the Millennium Monument in 1905, and the Museum of Fine Arts in 1906. It is relatively unknown that today’s Heroes’ Square used to be a park until the 1930s.

The museum

The building, which was opened in the presence of Franz Joseph I. in 1906, now displays the works of the greatest artists of the universal art history. The museum got much of them due to the Hungarian nobility.
Currently, the collection can be divided into 6 parts: the Egyptian Art, the Classical Antiquities, Old Master Paintings, Sculptures, the Prints and Drawings, and the Department of Art after 1800. Artists include geniuses like Raffaello, Leonardo, Dürer, Peter Bruegel, Rembrandt, Giorgione, El Greco, Tiziano and Monet.

A part of the building was seriously damaged during the World War II; a part of the collection was taken to the West, while the other part to the Soviet Union. The pieces taken to West were easy to get back, but those taken by the Soviets Union still rest in Russian museums.

The collection was divided up in 1957, which questionable to many art historians. The created Hungarian National Gallery displayed the works of Hungarian artists out of the international context.

The concept has changed a few years ago, so the two institutions (under a joint leadership) will follow the practices well-tried in Western Europe: the Hungarian artists will be embedded in the universal history of art, in a new museum built as part of the Liget Budapest Project.

based on article of welovebudapest.com
translated by Vivien Pásztai

Source: http://welovebudapest.com