New York, Sept 29 (CTK special correspondent) – Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka took over 260 books about architecture that belonged to the late Adolf Kurt Placzek, an art historian from a significant family linked to the Moravian capital of Brno, in New York on Monday.
Adolf Kurt Placzek (1913-2000) was born in Vienna. His grandfather Baruch Placzek was the chief rabbi of Brno and later the chief Moravian rabbi until his death in 1922.
Adolf’s cousin was Georg Placzek, a well-known nuclear physicist born in Brno, who was probably the only Czech working in a senior position on the Manhattan project, or the U.S. secret development of an atomic bomb.
Adolf Placzek completed his art history studies in Vienna and left for London fleeing the Nazis in 1938. Two years later he left for New York where he completed his librarian studies at the Columbia University.
In 1948, he started to work in the university’s architecture library, of which he was director until 1980. Under his management, the library became one of the world’s most respected of its kind.
Earlier this year, Placzek’s daughter donated 260 books from her father’s private collection to the the centre of modern architecture that is based in the villa Stiassni in Brno. Sobotka took over the books from the Czech Centre in New York.
