Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 16. (Budapest, 1997)

ÁCS Piroska: Lechner Ödön köztéri szobrának története

collector and historian Lajos Ernst, founder of a museum wearing his name in Budapest), and a treasurer (the architect Ferenc Vámos).The society intended to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the master's death in an imposant way. According to an announcement made public at the beginning of 1929,

3 an exhibition presenting the plans and sketches of the artist's most beautiful works, some drafts which remained unrealized as well as works by his followers, was to take place from mid-summer on in the Ernst Museum. Lechner's conceptions and creative en deavours were to be expounded during the commemorative assembly as well as during series of presentations related to the exhibition.The old project of the memorial was revived on this occasion, and, after having obtained a subscription of a couple of hundred pengő from the wealthiest of Lechner 's friends and admirers,

4 the Society turned for support to the Council of Budapest. This move was justified by the fact that the most interesting buildings designed by Lechner greatly contributed to the architectural wealth of Budapest's inner districts. The City of Budapest offered the sum of 10.000 pengő for the erection of a full-size memorial.

5 The conditions of the open competition were published in the press on the 24th February : the memorial had to be a bronze statue with a limestone pedestal, but no concrete indication whatever was given as far as the composition itself was concerned. The participants were to hand in a reduced (one to five) model of their project, together with a detailed estimate of the costs by the 15th May of the same year. The winner of the competition would be commissioned with the execution of his project, while the second and third price consisted in a sum of 1200 and 600 pengő respectively. It was finally decided that the statue would replace an insignificant fountain situated opposite to the Jókai statue, on the side of the Café Japan at the east end of Ferenc Liszt square. In April, however, a newspaper article informed the readers that the planned site of Lechner's statue had been changed. According to the new conception, the statue of Jókai, known as the "nation's tale-teller", was to face a group of secondary figures entitled "Reading girls".

6 The deadline of the competition was postponed to the following Octobre. The great anniversary celebration and the inauguration of the statue were included to the programme of the international archietcture congress which was to find place in Budapest in the following year. Consequently only a modest ceremony was held in the festive hall of the Museum of Applied Arts on the 20th June 1929.

7 In the autumn, the deadline of the competition was postponed to the 15th Novembre on request of the sculptors, who had been kept busy by the István Tisza, the Ottokár Prohászka and the József Katona sculpture competitions. The new conditions indicated the earlier site, and the upper limit set to the costs amounted to 25-30.000 pengő. Ministre of Religion and Education Kuno Klebeisberg was delegated to be chairman of the memorial committee, chief-mayor Ferenc Ripka became députée chairman, and Béla Jánszky, managing director. The committee also counted mayor Jenő Sipőcz, retired ministre Gábor Ugron, and state secretary Róbert K. Kertész among its members.

8 23 models realized by 18 contestants had been given in before the deadline at the Museum of Applied Arts. The decision of the jury, transmitted by Károly Lyka to the memorial committee on the 26th Novembre was following: none of the projects had been deemed suitable; however, the jury expressed its acknowledgements to the work of Ö. Fülöp Beck, Ede Kallós, Zsigmond KisfaludyStróbl, Lajos Petri Pick, and Béla Vörös.

9 A press view was held on the same day. The next day, art historian Ervin Ybl protested against the fruitless conclusion of the competition, pointing out that this solution seemed to become a fashion, as none of the projects given in for the Prohászkamemorial competition had been chosen either. In his opinion, Ö. Fülöp Beck's statue