Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 30. (Budapest, 2016)
Ildikó PANDUR: A Wrought-Iron Exhibition Hall Gateway from 1883: A Contribution to the Architectural History of the Old Exhibition Hall and the Old Music Academy in Budapest
the Museum of Applied Arts to move out as soon as possible, as this was in the interests of both the new tenant of the Old Exhibition Hall, a company called Plasticon Inc. Co.,53 and the neighbouring Music Academy, which intended to rent back the three vacated rooms on the ground floor.54 Once the premises were vacant they had to be reconverted, which involved, among other alterations, bricking in the wall that had been opened in 1883, meaning there was once again no direct access between the two Adolf Lang-designed buildings.55 The transfer of the museum’s collection to its new home - delayed slightly by the condition of the new building - was only completed in August 1896,56 and the vacated rooms were occupied by the Music Academy that October.57 The ceremony to lay the capstone on the new palace of the Museum of Applied Arts, on Üllői Road, Budapest, was held on 25 October 1896,58 but building work continued until mid-June the following year.59 In the intervening period, the artworks were unpacked and sorted into groups, and the different collections were put together. After three years of “moving and putting things in order”, the museum opened to the public once more in 1899.60 Numbering some 9000 pieces, the museum’s collection, roughly half of which was put on permanent display,61 could now lay claim to its very own home. NOTES 1 Museum of Applied Arts, Metalwork Collection, inv. no. 56.1022.1-2: garden gate (“supplier, Jungfer company, 1950”); inv. no. 7161: gate pediment (“unknown origin”); inv. no. 56.1023.4.1-2. (according to the description on the card: 56.1023.6-7.): side section of a railing (“supplier, Jungfer company, 1950”). Mistakenly inventoried as part of a different set of railings, inv. no. 2015.186.1-2: two long, narrow sections of railing. 2 Museum of Applied Arts, Archive, KRTF 7225. 3 Végh, Gyula: ‘Adatok az Orsz. Magyar Iparművészeti Múzeum történetéhez.’ [Data concerning the history of the National Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts.] In: Magyar Művészet VII, (1931), pp. 425-427. (hereafter: Végh 1918) - Ács, Piroska: Keletre magyar” - Az Iparművészeti Múzeum palotájának építéstörténete a kordokumentumok tükrében.’ [“Hungarian to the East” - the history of the construction of the palace of the Museum of Applied Arts through contemporary documents.], Budapest, 1996 (hereafter: Ács 1996), p. 5. 4 Ács 1996, p. 6. 5 Végh, Gyula: ‘A Nemzeti Múzeum Régiségtára és az Iparművészeti Múzeum.’ [The Repository of Antiquities at the Hungarian National Museum and the Museum of Applied Arts.] In: Magyar Iparművészet XXI, (1918), pp. 60 and 77-80. See: Ács 1996, p. 6. (The East Asian artworks of János Xantus collected during the Austro-Hungarian expedition of 1868-1870, similarly to Végh (Végh 1918, p. 425) are erroneously associated with the round-the-world trip of the frigate Novara, undertaken in 1857-1859.) - Ács, Piroska: ‘A 110
