Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 2. (Budapest, 1974)

Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs en 1972

chases reduced to a mere 10 per cent. The fact that in 1934 the Museum was amalgamated into the Historical Museum of the Hungarian National Museum is a striking evidence of the narrow-mindedness of the age. The war did not cause significant loses to the Museum's collections, but the building itself suffered considerable damage. With the liberation the Museum also came to new life, but during the first years of the new era all its forces and efforts were absorbed by the work of reorganization. The first exhibition was organized as early as 1946. The independence of the Museum was restored by an 1948 decree. In 1948 the Museum was also enriched by another Department, the Nagytétény Castle Museum was affiliated to the Museum of Applied Arts. Considerable financial means were needed and allocated by the State for the restoration of the Castle Museum, which now accomodates the furniture exhibitions of the Museum of Applied Arts. Further severe damage was suffered by the building during the counter-revolution of 1956. As a result, an overall restoration became necessary, in the course of which the entire façade of the building was restored to its original form, and the technical installations were modernized. Thanks to this restoration, the building of the Museum as an architectural monument now displays and bears the imprint of the trends and aspirations of its period, and at the same time evidences the care given by socialist society to the fostering of national traditions in this field as well. This restoration took place in the years from 1958 to 1962. The main aim of the Museum is to collect and preserve characteristic examples of outstanding artistic value of applied arts, Hungarian as well as foreign, covering the past and present. Beside this work of collecting, the scholarly study and research into the Museum's material, together with making it available to the general public, is one of the fundamental tasks of Hungarian museums. Following their enrichment, the departments of the Museum had to be more closely specialized. The Museum of Applied Arts to-day has Departments of Ceramics and Glassware, Textiles, Furniture, Silver and Metalwork as well as the Department of Smaller Collections, which comprises leatherwork, ivory carvings, bookbindings, and other minor collections. The Museum includes a Department of Register, Archives, a Library, and a Collection of Photographs. As mentioned before, the Castle Museum of Nagytétény, the Ferenc Hopp Museum East Asian Art and the China Museums are all affiliated to the Museum of Applied Arts. The major questions relating to art in Hungary have been and still are in the centre of the scholarly activities of the Museum. The nucleus of scholarly work is no doubt the publication of the material owned by the Museum. The Museum's Annals, published for several decades running, have justly acquired high recognition in scientific circles. The work also includes the publication of numerous volumes of monographs and other scholarly publications relating among others to Hungarian tin metalwork, to the relics in Hungary of German gold- and silver work, to Hungarian furniture in the period of early Classicism, to the textile relics of medieval Hungary, to Haban ceramics, to Gothic and Renaissance bookbindings, and to Hungarian decorative arts in the period of Historicism and the turn of the century. The number of exhibitions staged by the Museum has significantly increased in recent years. Various exhibitions of considerable interest were arranged. Among them mention must be made of the display 209