Page 58 - bne_Magazine_July_2017

ARTS
58 I CULTURE bne July 2017 & PEOPLE
In Loucen Castle only the family portraits survived as they were placed too high on the walls for the casual looter to seize.
To have and have not again
Stephen Weeks in Prague
Part I.
In November 1989, after communism had been sent pack- ing, the people of Czechoslovakia had to change attitudes overnight. All teachers of Russian were given the short Christmas break to convert to teaching English. For most of them, they would remain for some time only a very short head in front of their pupils. But in the ‘State Castles’ change hap- pened more slowly – and in some cases, no change in attitude has been achieved at all in the past quarter of a century.
Even though the restitution of property acts came into force in 1992, many civil servants have actively conspired against the spirit of the laws, and have had a field day in tying-up restitu- tion claims in bureaucratic red-tape. The National Heritage Institute (NPU) often dug its heels in, as its officers, who were very lowly paid, were jealous of foreigners turning up and being given back historic buildings.
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Bribery and theft were also rife. Thousands of valuable antiques ‘disappeared’ in this process. In one case (still before the courts), the NPU was very unwilling to release a castle,
at which a huge visitor tour ticket scam was an attractive addition to staff wages.
The idea that former aristocrats and foreign exiles – the
heirs of the owners of its castles before the second world
war – could get back iconic buildings was an anathema to these old communist hacks. As late as 2008 the head of one of the districts of the NPU stated that “he’d rather see historic buildings be pulled down than fall into private hands”.
Winning restitution cases against the bureaucrats required good lawyers, connections, and patience. The return of the Lobkowicz Palace, part of Prague Castle, was once considered