For an Independent Hungarian National Gallery Dec 17. 2011 | Comments (34)
Protest Against the Merger of the Hungarian National Gallery and the Museum of Fine ArtsOn 29 February 2012 the Hungarian National Gallery will cease to exist as an independent institution. Unless those responsible can be persuaded to think again, something unprecedented is due to happen: without any plausible or scientifically acceptable explanation, the decision has been taken to eliminate the independence of one of Hungary’s leading museums, an internationally acknowledged institution of 55 years’ standing. Moreover this decision is to be implemented within four months, without consultation, and with extraordinary and unseemly haste. As a consequence of merging its collection with the Museum of Fine Arts, which is about the same size and encompasses an international field of interest, the Hungarian National Gallery will lose its institutional and intellectual autonomy. The potential damage to Hungarian heritage is incalculable, since the National Gallery is the main...