Prague, May 9 (CTK) – Ivana Kyzourova, who has been sacked as head of the Czech Presidential Office’s heritage conservation section now that Prague Castle will host a series of Charles IV anniversary exhibitions she helped to prepare, was bullied by her superiors for many months before her dismissal, she has told CTK.
Still before Kyzourova’s dismissal, the Presidential Office made changes to the exhibition project she had prepared at Prague Castle to mark the 700th birth anniversary of Czech King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (born in Prague on May 14, 1316).
She was all of a sudden dismissed six weeks before the opening of the exhibitions, scheduled for mid-May.
She had to leave her job immediately. “I received no explanation,” she told CTK.
According to CTK’s information, one of the reasons why she had fallen into disfavour might have been her intervention against an insensitive refurbishment of an office of a civil servant who came to the Presidential Office together with incumbent President Milos Zeman in 2013.
“My departure from the Presidential Office could be expected, as I faced permanent bullying on the part of my superiors in the past year. In spite of that, I was surprised by being sacked before the launch of the Charles IV project…I am in contact with my lawyer,” Kyzourova said, but refused to elaborate.
The Presidential Office’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek told CTK that he would not comment on the personnel change.
He said the core of the Charles IV events will be a display of the crown jewels “without the need for people to pay entrance fees.”
Previously, an exhibition prepared by Kyzourova was heralded as the key event.
Kyzourova planned to put the original royal crown on display as the main exhibit within the Sceptre and Crown exhibition of which she was the author. Originally, the Prague Castle Management set the entrance fee at 250 crowns and said they would introduce the system of reservations in order to regulate the expected wave of visitors.
In December, President Milos Zeman announced that the crown jewels will be displayed at another place for free. Zeman has a final say in this case.
Kyzourova said she learnt that the original crown will not be displayed within the Sceptre and Crown exhibition. “No one discussed the change with me,” she told CTK.
She said she did not want to present the crown’s replica at the exhibition as “a number of such replicas exist and they have been displayed even on less dignified occasions…However, my superior insisted on the presentation of a replica and he ordered me in writing to make it a part of the exhibition. I refused to do so, including a thorough explanation, and I wondered at their unusual interferences in my powers [as the exhibition’s author]…I was sacked two weeks later,” she said.
She replaced the original royal crown with its virtual model at the exhibition.
“This is something new, it will be more interesting for visitors than a well-known replica,” she said.
