Collecting Activities for the National Museum

In 2017, the Central Acquisition Advisory Committee of the National Museum discussed 39 proposals for the acquisition of collection items or sets of items to a total proposed amount of about CZK 12.7 million.  Further 3 further acquisitions were discussed that were approved last year but not purchased, to the amount of CZK 95,000. Proposals were submitted by all collection sections of the National Museum, with the greatest number of proposals coming from the Historical and Natural History Museums.

All 39 proposed acquisitions (1 of which was conditional) were approved; however, with respect to the limited resources of the National Museum, only 37 items or sets of items were purchased, and in one case only part of the proposed item was purchased, for a lower amount.

The ISO/C subsidy programme of the Ministry of Culture funded the purchase of a set of items from the estate of the first republic diplomat Miroslav Plesinger-Božinov for the Historical Museum, together with two autographs of Vítězslav Novák's music, a letter of 1882 by Antonín Dvořák to Eduard Hanslick, and an 1821 quittance for Christian Clam Gallas from Josefína Dušková for the Museum of Music.

In 2016, the purchase of two sets of items was funded from the same programme. However, as this purchase was approved by the Central Advisory Committee in previous years, it is listed separately in the table.

 The purchase included a collection of 268 Japanese-themed items for the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures (approved by the Central Advisory Committee in the autumn of 2015, total value CZK 499,500), and an Ichneumonidae family collection for the Natural History Museum (approved in summer 2012, total value CZK 206 814).

In 2017 the Josef, Marie and Zdenek Hlávek Foundation donated a wall painting, a portrait of Josef Jan Frič by Hugo Boettinger from 1925, purchased for the collections of the History Museum of the National Museum. Purchases funded by projects or other sources were only for the Museum of Natural History, for its entomological, mineralogical and palaeontological collections.

In 2017 the collections of the Historical Museum were expanded thanks to the pre-emption right of the state to objects of historical significance under § 13 Act No. 20/1987 Coll., on Heritage Conservation, and their subsequent assignment to the care of the National Museum. Thanks to this right, the Czech Museum of Music acquired a musical instrument, A. Marconcini violoncello, from 1787 with a value of CZK 2,000,000.

In parallel with the above-mentioned acquisition, the collections of the National Museum were also enriched by purchases of objects worth up to CZK 20,000 and by means of donations. These acquisitions are described in detail in the acquisition list of the various collection departments of the National Museum.