31.05.2021 11:44
At the moment, the Prague 1 Municipal Court is seeking to resolve the dispute over ownership of the Slavic Epic between John Mucha and the City of Prague, the latter being represented by managing partner of our office, JUDr. Roman Felix. Here is part of his statement about the case:
„This is a complicated legal dispute, however Prague´s ownership of this monumental work of art is supported not only by historical documents, but most importantly by the decision of the Ministry of Culture from February 1993, issued based on the Act on Municipal Property. It is therefore operating in good faith with which the City took over the collection in 1993. At the same time, I maintain that the person who donated the paintings was the American impresario Charles Crane, who attained legal ownership of them based on a contract with Alfons Mucha. In accordance with this contract, he paid for the work and Alfons Mucha was therefore never the owner of the work, but only the creator.“
The Slav Epic is a cycle of twenty large-format paintings in which the painter Alfons Mucha summarized the history of Slavic nations. It´s considered to be one of the masterpieces of this artist´s career and is currently being displayed in Japan.
JUDr. Felix has been involved in the ownership issue of the Slav Epic continuously since 2010 when he began representing the City of Prague in a dispute with the town of Moravský Krumlov over the placement of the work. During his preparation, he studied many documents from century-old legal texts to the painter´s correspondence with the impresario Crane.