Veszprémi Nóra - Jávor Anna - Advisory - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2005-2007. 25/10 (MNG Budapest 2008)

LÓRÁND BERECZKY: The First Fifty Years - 50™ ANNIVERSARY OF THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY - Katalin SINKÓ: The Making of an Independent National Gallery: Between Memory and History

and gradual withdrawal from the political sphere took place in the life of Hungarian museums. In the 1980s, step by step, museums returned to their former traditions, their particular roles in cultural life. And also asserted their scholarly claims. MUSEUM AFFAIRS: ART MUSEUMS WITH A COUNTRY-WIDE SCOPE BETWEEN 1949 AND 1980 For a year or two after the war, it seemed that, in spite of many difficulties, all artistic tendencies would find their way to public exhibitions. However, the affairs of living art soon acquired decisive importance not only in art and exhibition life but also in the administration of museum affairs. After 1949, Hungary was governed under a single-party system. The aim was to communize all scholarly systems and establishments, and re-mould the intelligentsia in order to perform ideological objectives. Between 1945 and 1949, museums with a country-wide scope subject to the National Museum were run under the old Hóman Act. However, due to the enforced turnabout in all spheres of intellectual life after 1949, fundamental changes occurred in the area of the fine arts, too. The pluralism of artistic tendencies was put an end to. In 1949, single-party parliamentary elections were held, and the new constitution of the country was adopted. Communist ideology had little idea of what to do with the totality of the museum material of the country's national cultural heritage. Remembering things past had no value of itself in the view of the new regime; if anything, it was merely a means of example and agitprop. The makers of cultural policy particularly emphasized that artists should turn from the past to the present. The Institute of the Working-Class Movement and its Museum was established under the leadership of the Party. Until the end of 1956, it operated subject not to the state, but to the direct authority of the Party, as a consequence of which it reacted to the slightest changes in national political life by continually rearranging its exhibitions. Under Act number 13 of 1949, the National Centre of Museums and Monuments (Múzeumok és Műemlékek Országos Központja - MMOK) was established to supervise museums and ensure the protection of historic buildings. In April 1950 already, the MMOK proposed the communization of provincial museums. The most important result of the MMOK was the unification of the network of museums in the country. Another function of the MMOK was the protection of historic buildings at a point of time when the immense damages of the war had hardly been repaired, and when the desolation of mansion houses and monasteries wasted national monuments to a degree the war had done. The implementing regulation of Act no. 13 of 1949 provided for taking stock of ecclesiastic and private collections. According to reports, there was an unprecedented movement of art works in response. This state of affairs was further aggravated by the property situation of middle- and upper-class families forcibly displaced: incoming artworks flooded the Museums of Applied Arts, Fine Arts and the National Museum. It was at this point that the idea of establishing a separate Hungarian art museum cropped up again. The communization of Budapest museums facilitated exchanges between museums or the unifications of their collections. Lajos Végvári, the director of the Budapest Municipal Picture Gallery, proposed the establishment of a national gallery at this time. According to his suggestion, the 5. Arts Hall, August 1952. Retrospective of Mihály Munkácsy organized by the MMOK from the merged collections of the New Hungarian Picture Gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Municipal Picture Gallery. Photo by Ferenc Botta/MTI, Hungarian National Museum, Photo Collection material of the new gallery would be built up from the merger of the collections of the New Hungarian Gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Municipal Picture Gallery. The MMOK also envisaged the future establishment of a national gallery. In February 1953, the Presidential Council dissolved the MMOK without a successor, and relegated the administration of museum affairs to the Ministry of Popular Education. The major objectives were as follows: "To strengthen state leadership and control, to fulfil fundamental organizational tasks, and strengthen state discipline in our museums. To terminate self-seeking scholarly research, to improve the standard of scholarly work, to lay the foundations of the scientific research based on Marxism-Leninism. [My italics.]" The Museum Department of the Ministry repeatedly reproached the Museum of Fine Arts for its experts not maintaining due contacts with living artists, and consequently delegated prominent 6. The Hungarian National Gallery in the former building of the High Court, Autumn 1957. Sculpture gallery on the first floor. Photo: HNG Archive, inv. no.: 11899/1959