Sz. Kürti Katalin - Hapák József: Munkácsy Mihály Krisztus-képei (Debrecen, 1993)

dealing with the motif of the resurrection. Still, he never painted the two glorious scenes, the resurrection and ascension, what could have followed the Golgotha, instead he went back in the history and painted the second painful meeting between Christ and Pilate. So came into being the Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), which was first presented in Budapest in connection with the millennial exhibition. Later this work also was taken to a tour throughout Europe and America but this procession was far less successful than those of its predecessors. Munkácsy was by then forgotten. He was struggling for his life through four years in Endenich, then died. The whole world became interested in the impressionists, post-impressionists, expressionists. The Ecce Homo was exhibited in 1914 in Budapest, and was bought in 1916 by Frigyes Déri, a silk mill owner of Hungarian origin, who lived in Vienna. According to his will the 403x650 cm large picture found its place in Debrecen, where it can continuously be seen in the same skylighted room. Now its counterpart, the Golgotha arrived at its neighbourhood. Now, let's continue the story of the two great Christ paintings from the year 1988. It was then, that the Wanamaker foundation decided to sell the store and 16 paintings of the picture gallery. There was among the pictures Hans Temple's Munkácsy painting the Christ before Pilate, as well as the two mighty canvases by Munkácsy. The Sotheby's auction took place in New York on the 24th of February 1988. Then the first painting changed hands for 60,000 dollars and went to Canada, while the Golgotha was bought for 47,500 dollars by Julian Beck, alias Csaba Gyula Bereczki, the owner of the Pannónia Gallery based at New York and Washington. In 1991 he decided to send home the great painting and deposit it in a Hungarian museum. The Hungarian National Museum was ready to accept the deposit under the condition that after its presentation in Budapest it would be settled in the Déri Museum. Its restoration took István Lente, Péter Menráth and Miklós Szentkuthy of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, a year. The expenses were covered by the Ministry of Culture and Education, the City of Debrecen and the General Assembly of Hajdú-Bihar County. The restauration was to heel all what happened to the painting during 110 years. It is known that between 1884 and 1887 it was rolled up about 50 times. After 1887 the work left Wanamaker'

s home several times: in 1889 and 1893 it was sent to the World Exhibitions in Paris and Chicago, respectively. On the 8th of February 1907, when a fire broke out in Wanamaker'

s picture gallery, he had the picture cut out of its frame and thrown onto the snow. Later the canvas was completed with poor expertise. While between 1911 and 1988 the painting was not often moved and rolled up, after that it was. The Golgotha was exhibited on Easter 1993 in the Hungarian National Museum. From August 1993 till the turn of the millenary it can be seen in the Déri Museum.