Prague will extend its contract with Moravsky Krumlov for the loan of the Slav Epic, a set of 20 large-format paintings by Alfons Mucha. Prague City Hall decided yesterday to extend the loan for five years until 2031, on the basis of an agreement with John Mucha, Marcus James Mucha and the Mucha Foundation.
The cycle is currently on display at Moravsky Krumlov castle. The current contract expires on 20 May 2026. Yesterday’s decision implies that the work will remain in Moravsky Krumlov until Prague provides a permanent exhibition for it.
According to the document approved by the council yesterday, the location of the paintings in Moravsky Krumlov has proved to be a good idea. “The technical conditions specified in the existing contract and all the parameters of the International Council of Museums are continuously observed, and regular checks by the lender – the Prague City Gallery – confirm compliance with all the standards associated with the exhibition of the national cultural monument,” stated the explanatory memorandum of the decision.
According to the report, the number of visitors to the castle has roughly doubled since the work was put on display, with approximately 33,000 people visiting last year.
The Slav Epic cycle consists of 20 large canvases, which Mucha painted over 18 years starting in 1910. When the work was finished, he donated it to Prague on the condition that an appropriate exhibition space would be built for it, but he did not set a date. Permanent premises for the Slav Epic have been sought in the capital since the beginning of the last century.
In the 1950s, the cycle was placed in the castle in Moravsky Krumlov. In 2001, Prague approved a proposal to place the epic at the Prague Exhibition Centre. However, this did not happen. Nine years later, Prague city councillors decided to move the cycle to the Trade Fair Palace. The council justified this on the grounds of the poor condition of the castle and released CZK 25 million for the move and the creation of the exhibition. A few weeks later, Mucha’s family asked the court for an interim measure to prevent the move to the Trade Fair Palace. Since then, disputes over its location and ownership have been ongoing.
The series was eventually exhibited at the Trade Fair Palace from 2012 to 2017. Four years later it returned to Moravsky Krumlov. While the painter’s relative John Mucha withdrew the lawsuit in 2023 after an agreement with the City Hall, the other heiress, Jarmila Mucha Plockova, filed her own lawsuit to establish ownership. According to her, the agreement with John Mucha is disadvantageous for the town and, in particular, does not definitively resolve the question of the ownership of the Epic.
