Prague, Feb 17 (CTK) – The last part of the huge paintings of The Slav Epic cycle by Alfons Mucha left for Japan Friday and the previous two parts are already in the Tokyo gallery where they will be exhibited for three months, Jan Wolf, Prague councillor in charge of culture, told CTK.
The transport of the 20 canvasses to Tokyo via Frankfurt am Main, which began earlier this week, is accompanied by tight security measures and Czech art conservationists supervise it.
The exact time of the departures has not been revealed for security reasons.
Mucha (1860-1939), a leading representative of the Nouveau Art style, donated the Slav Epic to Prague on condition that it builds a special gallery for the cycle, which the city has not done yet. He worked on the paintings in the 1910s and 1920s and the complete cycle was presented to the public in Prague in 1928.
The Tokyo exhibition will open on March 8.
The monumental paintings travelled abroad already before. For the first time, the five paintings that Mucha completed by then were shown in Chicago and New York in 1920-1921.
Originally, the Slav Epic was to also fly to China this year, but the plan was not approved.
