It seems Hungary has no intention whatsoever to give up ‘Golgotha’, a painting by Mihály Munkácsy exhibited as part of a trilogy in the Déri Museum of Debrecen, although its owner wants to take the painting out of the country later this month for the central bank (MNB) is not willing to pay as much for it as Imre Pákh wants. At the initiative of the Prime Minister’s Office a procedure has been launched that prevents anyone from taking the painting out of the country.
A negotiation on the sale of Golgotha has been in progress for some time now between the MNB and Imre Pákh, a Hungarian art collector living in New York, who owns this part of the Munkácsy trilogy. Hungary purchased another piece of the trilogy, 'Christ before Pilate’ from Canada’s Art Gallery of Hamilton for USD 5.7 million in February this year. The trilogy has been on exhibition in Debrecen for some years now. It has made stints in Pécs and Budapest too before it was moved back home to Debrecen in November 2012.
Pákh is asking USD 9 million for the painting, whereas the central bank said that due to regulations it cannot pay more than USD 6 million. The owner said that unless a deal is made he will remove the painting from Hungary on 25 June. It seems the state does not like the idea one bit.
The Prime Minister’s Office has requested a temporary protection for the painting, which - under existing heritage rules - means that Golgotha needs to be treated as any other protected cultural goods.
In practice this means that the painting cannot be shipped out of the country and the owner is obliged to announce any change in the place where the piece of art is guarded. Another consequence is that if the owner wants to sell the painting the state has the right of first refusal.
The government admittedly wants to achieve via the protective procedure that “this outstanding creation of our national painting remains in Hungarian interest," the Prime Minister’s Office said.
It added that the procedure does not prevent Pákh from selling the painting and it has not been initiated with that goal in mind..
Imre Pákh. Source: mutargy.com
Simon L. László, parliamentary state secretary at the PM’s Office, told public television M1 on Tuesday that if they manage to agree on a realistic price with Pákh, the state would be happy to buy the painting for the objective is to keep Golgotha in Hungary.
He stressed that if Pákh chose to sell the painting to a third party, the new owner would still not be able to take it out of the country.
Charting is displayed using TradingView's technology, a platform, where you can build advanced charts,
spot upcoming trends in the stock screener, and find inspiration in multiple trading ideas
