National Gallery receives archive with Kupka's letters

Prague, Oct 9 (CTK) - The Czech Culture Ministry plans to gradually release the archive of Jindrich Waldes with over 6500 items, including letters by artist Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957), which it has bought for the National Gallery, Culture Minister Alena Hanakova (TOP 09) said Tuesday.

The correspondence between Czech-born Kupka, one of the pioneers of abstract art, and industrialist Waldes, who supported the artist, has not been published yet.

The Czech state bought the archive for 1.1 million crowns from Waldes's heir whom it was returned in the 1990s after the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The state applied its pre-emption right in the auction.

Along with letters from Kupka, it includes Waldes's correspondence with other Czech artists, Vojtech Preissig (1873-1944), Alfons Mucha (1860-1939), Emil Filla (1882-1953) and Max Svabinsky (1873-1962).

The Culture Ministry Tuesday also presented an unknown bust of Kupka that he helped create himself.

The artifact, made by sculptor Jan Vlach, was given to the Czech state by Waldes's son for the planned Kupka memorial at a cemetery in Paris or Prague.

Kupka was buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

A group seeking the transfer of his bodily remains to the Czech Republic was established a couple of years ago.

The Czech state first supported the initiative but now Hanakova says the ministry is rather opposed to the transport of Kupka's urn. She refers to the Waldes archive that allegedly proves that Kupka decided to live and work in France and was not striving for his return home.

On the other hand, supporters of Kupka's burial in the Czech Republic argue that he was a patriot, he was taking an annuity from the Czechoslovak state for his heroism in the resistance movement and he remained a Czechoslovak citizen until his death in France.

At present the Culture Ministry is also deciding whether it will preserve the status of cultural heritage for The Shape of Blue by Kupka, which was sold for a record high auction price of 55.75 million crowns in Prague in mid-April.

Under Czech law, the work of art declared cultural heritage cannot permanently leave the country.

If the painting remains cultural heritage, its new foreign owner must not take it from the Czech Republic permanently.

Gallery owner Vladimir Lekes, who auctioned off the painting, handed over Kupka's bust and the Waldes archive to the Culture Ministry Tuesday.