Prague, Sept 12 (CTK) – A part of the Czech presidential flag, which artists from the Ztohoven group removed from the Prague Castle roof and replaced with red trunks last year, will be one of the items to be offered in a charity auction of the Diakonie NGO, its representative Elias Molnar told CTK yesterday.
Ztohoven donated the cut pieces of the flag to the auction.
The Ztohoven members, disguised as chimney sweepers, hung out giant red boxer shorts on the roof of Prague Castle, the presidential seat, instead of the presidential flag on September 19, 2015, in protest against President Milos Zeman’s behaviour in office.
The group cut the original presidential flag into more than 1000 pieces and distributed them among people.
“We have some pieces of the flag left and it seemed nice to us to use it in support of the positive things that Diakonie is doing,” Ztohoven spokesman Petr Zilka told CTK.
“We thereby want to create a new situation and monitor, for example, whether the society is willing to pay for it as for an artifact,” he added.
The organisers were considering whether they should include the pieces of the flag, which is actually stolen, among the auctioned items at all, Molnar said.
“This is why we turned to the police to find out whether it was possible. We do not expect the police to ban it,” Molnar told CTK.
The initial price of a 10x10cm flag piece is put at zero crowns.
The Ztohoven incident caused indignation among part of the Czech public. The artists were sharply criticised by Zeman and other politicians, saying they thereby defamed the president’s office.
In late August, a Prague district court ruled that the hanging out of red boxer shorts at Prague Castle by the Ztohoven artistic group was no crime. The artists thereby committed neither a theft nor rioting, the judge said.
Molnar admitted that the decision to sell a part of the presidential flag might stir up negative reactions.
The “Good Auction” event will be held on November 2.
Apart from Ztohoven, artist Petr Nikl, photographer Jindrich Streit and other authors donated their works to it.
Diakonie will use the auction proceeds in support of its humanitarian and development projects.
