Prague, Feb 28 (CTK) – An armchair from the Prague Castle office of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first Czechoslovak president in 1918-1935, was sold at an auction on Sunday for 1.1 million crowns, up from the starting price of 150,000, Irena Velkova, from the Sypka auction house, told CTK.
She would not identify the buyer.
A writing table from Masaryk’s office was also put up for auction but was not sold.
The armchair was the last one from the office to be put on sale. It was long considered lost, as was the table.
The armchair was designed by Slovenian architect Josip Plecnik (1872-1957) in the 1920s, when he, invited by Masaryk (1850-1937), was supervising the reconstruction of Prague Castle.
The Presidential office started selling its old furniture in the 1970s. Two armchairs were bought by the Klenoty jewelry state enterprise for 80 crowns at the time.
The third armchair was missing until recently.
The wooden intarsia-decorated writing table from the 19th century, with fine coloured motifs of fruit, remained unsold on Sunday. The starting price was 280,000 crowns.
