Precious Hungarian art treasures stay in America

The collection of Nancy Goodman Brinker, the former American ambassador to Hungary, stays in America: the Hungarian state does not want to buy it anymore. Yet, her collection based on Hungarian paintings contain many significant painters’ works, such as Szinyei, Aba-Novák and László Fehér. According to artists, it is not so bad if the Hungarian works stay abroad, they simply enlarge the agio of Hungarian art, reports 24.hu.

Not long ago Heti Válasz made a list of those collections of art which got back to the Hungarian state during the past years or decades. However, a loose end has remained: Nancy Goodman Brinker’s collection of Hungarian pieces of art – Brinker was the United States’ ambassador to Budapest between 2001 and 2003. In 2015 the government decided to buy the collection containing mainly Hungarian paintings for 5.5 million USD (4.4 million EUR).

Even an edict was created about it, which Viktor Orbán signed. Four ministers had to work on it. Mihály Varga’s task was to provide the sources which enable the state to buy and take the collection home. Miklós Seszták and János Lázár had to make the contract, while Zoltán Balog was responsible for finding the location of the permanent exhibition.

This location would have been the De la Motte – Beer Palota in Buda Castle. 1.6 million EUR has been set apart for the building’s renovation, while another 32 thousand EUR a year for ten years for the exhibition itself. However, the collection hasn’t come back since then, but nobody verified the fact that the plan would not work.

As János Lázár was responsible for the negotiations, 24.hu asked the portfolio about the collection. They have replied that “the Hungarian State withdrew the purchase”. They have explained their decision saying that the seller, Brinker, “does not want to sell the whole collection which was the basis of the original negotiations”. (But the question still stands whether the state did not want to buy some pieces of the collection.)

It has also turned out from the reply that the renovation of the protected monument De la Motte – Beer Palota (belonging to the state but being under the property management of Budavári Ingatlanfejlesztő és Üzemeltető Nonprofit Kft.) is cancelled, but it will operate as an exhibition hall in the future. The building used to belong to Forster Központ, which was responsible for heritage conservation, but has been closed.

These paintings stay in America

The collection is significant, as we’re talking about the protected paintings of Mihály Munkácsy, Vilmos Aba-Novák, Róbert Berény, Béla Czóbel, József Rippl-Rónai, Lajos Gulácsy, László Moholy-Nagy or contemporary painters such as Ilona Keserü, Imre Bak, László Fehér and El Kazovsky. One of the most precious pieces is the Portrait of Ilona Batthyány by János Vaszary, but the main part of the collection contains paintings from the first half of the 20th century. (Vg.hu has an article about the history and pieces of the collection itself.)

Magyar Narancs cites a catalogue, according to which the number of art treasures in Brinker’s collection is 30-40, Attila Ledényi – owner of Art Market – thinks this number is 150, while the sources of 24.hu believe it is around 100. Later, the former ambassador got interested in photos as well, so now she owns some of André Kertész’s works, but statues can be found in the collection too.