The Budapest Museum Quarter is a proposed new cultural and tourist site to be located on Andrássy út in Budapest, Hungary, and has at its core the merger of the Hungarian National Gallery with the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts into one institution. The concept has been around since at least 2008 when the Director of the Museum of Fine Arts proposed combining the two collections. In 2010, the Fidesz political party included the idea in its election campaign. Several other Budapest museums would be affected by the plan, which faces not only economic and legal hurdles, but also criticism from both members of the public and art professionals alike.
Background
Hungarian national museum system National museums in Hungary are those institutions that are state–owned and centrally financed. Many of them were created in the late 19th century under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as specialized complementary institutions to the original Hungarian National Museum. Although they received state sponsorship, the museums within this system — including the Museum of Natural History, Museum of Ethnography, Museum of Applied Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery and pre–World War II, the National Library and Archives — operated autonomously with their own board and endowment. However, with the introduction of Communism into Hungary in 1949, they lost their autonomy and were governed by the state under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
The Hungarian National Museum is an important symbol of national identity because it played a major role in the anti-Habsburg Revolution of 1848 when the revolutionaries read their list of twelve demands, as well as a nationalistic poem on its front steps. The site is still used annually by the government to commemorate those events.
Fidesz government (2010)
Cultural policy After winning a two–thirds parliamentary majority in the 2010 elections, Fidesz or the Hungarian Civic Union party began what was called a "hands–on cultural policy" that included appointing a media watchdog "that has the power to fine media outlets deemed to violate public interest, order and morals". It was suggested by members of the Hungarian art community that the center–right government was also influencing the appointment of a new director for the Budapest Art Hall (Műcsarnok) when the prior, Socialist–appointed incumbent's term ran out at the end of 2010. Francesca Von Habsburg was considered a favorite of the new, conservative government and a front–runner in the selection process. However, instead of choosing a candidate from this transparent process launched in November 2010, the Secretary of State for Culture Géza Szőcs (a recent Fidesz appointee) personally approved the decision to hire Gábor Gulyás, former director of the Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts (MODEM) in Debrecen, Hungary.
In 2011, László Harsanyi, the director of the and his chief historical adviser, Judit Molnár, were both relieved of their posts after the State Secretary for the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, András Levente Gál, objected to the museum's display of an image of Hungary’s interwar leader Miklós Horthy. Saying that "this kind of historical inaccuracy [unjustifiably linking Hungary to the deportation of Jews to Nazi concentration camps] creates unnecessary tension," Gál drew the wrath of dozens of local historians and social scientists. But according to Molnár, "we could not change the permanent exhibition to align with the new political expectations since we regard that as a falsification of history." A Fidesz party MP and former chairman of the parliamentary cultural and press committee László Simon was also appointed to lead the National Cultural Fund of Hungary, which until then had been independent of the government. Other early 2012 replacements included that of Győrgy Szabó, director of Trafó — a leading contemporary art center — by choreographer Yvette Bozsik, and the director of Budapest’s Új Szinház theater, István Márta by György Dörner, an actor with extreme right–wing political affiliations. According to art historian Éva Forgács, “the government wants to disrupt the fabric of Hungarian culture, by having leading cultural figures disappear and replacing them with their own.” However, Simon dismissed any controversies over his and similar appointments as being politically motivated by the opposition.
In 2012, the government decreed that the network of over two hundred county museums that had been in operation for more than a century would fall under the auspices of local city governments. However, the deputy leader of the parliamentary cultural committee Gergely Karácsony criticized the decision, arguing that it went against professional standards and that a much better choice would have been unifying the galleries and museums under the Hungarian National Museum system. This would have allowed them to be state-funded, instead of relying on already underfunded local budgets that may lead to the closing of these institutions.
Constitutional changes On January 1, 2012, amendments created in the spring of 2011 by Fidesz to the Hungarian Constitution took effect and were not only criticized by many citizens within the country, but also by forces within the European Union and the United States. Some of these changes included "a preamble committed to defending the intellectual and spiritual unity of the nation", references to previously excluded social issues like the definition of marriage and modifications to the electoral process. Within days, tens of thousands of people marched in protest in Budapest. Initially, the government defended replacing the old Constitution stating that it was "high time" for the changes to be made. To support his May 2010 remarks that “Hungarian culture must be refreshed with works of art, prizes, celebrations”, as well as publicize the legislative changes, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán opened a special government–organized exhibit at the National Gallery highlighting the sovereign statehood and Christianity within the 1,000 years of Hungarian history. Included in the show, which runs through August 2012, are 15 large, state–commissioned works depicting important events from the country's past 150 years, including a canvas of Orbán himself.
Facing increasing pressure from the EU, by mid–January 2012 the Fidesz government had agreed to change parts of the new legislation regarding constitutional changes to the independence of the central bank, the judiciary and data protection. However, they did not agree to change language regarding the cultural components of the proposal.
The project
Initial proposals The concept of a separate museum district within Budapest was a Fidesz campaign platform during the 2010 elections. It included plans for the area from the Western Railway Station to the current Museum of Fine Arts, located on Heroes' Square, to house a newly built Museum of Hungarian Modern Art, as well as a House of Europe for all the countries represented on the continent. The Museum of Ethnography would also be moved to this newly planned district. The project was intended by the party to "serve as a cultural–touristic–gastronomic centre with an exhibition and music hall and information centre" and be realized over a period of 15 years. The proposal was unveiled by István Tarlós, who at the time was chairman of the Fidesz party and who became mayor of Budapest later that same year. Consequently, a consensus developed during a series of professional debates that a museum master plan was essential because there was a real need for: a modern 21st century institution; an emphasis to collect and exhibit 20th century Hungarian art in an international context; and the expansion of media to include architecture, design, photography and media arts. Speculation by the press as to why none of these proposals seemed to get beyond the discussion and debate stage included the observation that "the prevailing cultural policy since the political transformation has been to continue with the old model — that is, the use of direct control instead of a structural transformation based on dialogue".
In 2008, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, László Baán, proposed the merging of his museum with that of the National Gallery, due to the similar exhibition and collection profile of the two. Both (along with the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art) specialize in 20th century and contemporary fine art, much of which was created by Hungarian artists living overseas. After his request to add an €18million underground extension to the Museum of Fine Arts — which would have united collections spread across the city — was denied in February 2011, Baán presented an alternative plan to the government to build two new buildings at the cost of €150m. He envisioned the new buildings — one housing contemporary European art and the other Hungarian photography — as a "special museum island" that would complement the Museum of Fine Arts and the Budapest Art Hall (Műcsarnok) by permanently joining the two collections by 2017.
Current plans In September 2011, Secretary of State for Culture Géza Szőcs officially announced plans to build a new structure along Andrássy út close to City Park and near the existing Budapest Museum of Fine Arts and Budapest Art Hall (Műcsarnok). This building would house the collections of the current Hungarian National Gallery. This expanded plan, which would utilize the entire boulevard, is also referred to as the Andrássy Quarter. The project would also involve the addition of a tunnel to redirect existing vehicular traffic, thereby creating a pedestrian–only zone that hasn't existed on Andrássy út since the late nineteenth century. In addition to other new venues for eating and entertainment on Andrássy út, there would also be changes made to City Park. One of these would be to rename the Hungarian State Circus after Harry Houdini, whose background as a Hungarian was relatively unknown even though he was world famous. This version of the project would take eight years and cost 20 billion HUF. After submission of a detailed proposal to the cabinet (expected in summer 2012), construction could begin by 2014.
The architectural design for this "New Gallery" will be chosen based on an international competition.
Appointments and resignations According to the Hungarian News Agency (MTI), on October 1, 2011 László Baán was appointed to a two–year term as the government commissioner in charge of developing the new museum quarter, in addition to his existing position as director of the Museum of Fine Arts. In his new post, Baán will report directly to the Prime Minister, but will not get additional pay. He will be responsible for “preparing the concept, execution and architectural design–tender for a building complex to house the national public collection in Budapest’s 56–ers Square, with a special focus on merging the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Gallery".
Baán has faced criticism before from both other institutions and interest groups, having radically transformed his museum from 2004 onward from one of relative obscurity to being an extensive contributor of loans to major international exhibits. While his process of fast modernization and innovation was supported by the government, it went against the typical standard of slow (or even non-existent) change in non–contemporary, eastern European museums.
In early December 2011, Ferenc Csák — director of the Hungarian National Gallery since 2010 and critical of the proposed merger of the gallery with the Museum of Fine Arts— called the merge process “[v]ery unprofessional, anti–democratic and short–sighted” and announced that he would resign at the end of 2011. As of March 5, 2012, a new director had not been named and the Hungarian National Gallery was being led by Deputy General Director György Szűcs.