[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/eee4be9279b63ccdc62281d40d96d419ca410744.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tCzech culture minister Oto Klemp\u00ed\u0159 dismissed Alicja Knast from her post as director of Prague\u2019s National Gallery, generating scrutiny over what precipitated the decision.<\/p>\n
\n\tWithin the Czech Republic, the dismissal has been viewed by some as a politically motivated gesture. Knast took up the position in 2021, having been appointed to the role by Lubomir Zaoralek, a Social Democrat who was then serving as culture minister. Klemp\u00ed\u0159, a member of the right-wing Motorists party, became culture minister last year.<\/p>\n
\n\tBefore becoming culture minister, Klemp\u00ed\u0159 was the lead singer of the funk rock band J.A.R. Many artists in the Czech Republic have raised concerns about his ability to allocate funds appropriately. \u201cA culture minister should safeguard the independence and diversity of artistic production, not undermine it,\u201d read a 2025 open letter signed by artists such as Eva Ko\u0165\u00e1tkov\u00e1, who represented the nation at the 2024 Venice Biennale.<\/p>\n
\n\tKlemp\u00ed\u0159 did not offer a formal explanation for his removal of Knast. A release from the Czech culture ministry said that the dismissal was done in order to help the National Gallery \u201cstrengthen its position in the European context.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe museum houses an array of notable artworks, including modernist paintings by Franti\u0161ek Kupka, Alphonse Mucha, and other noted Czech and Slovak artists of the 20th century. Its collection also includes works by Gustav Klimt, Peter Paul Rubens, Vincent van Gogh, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Rembrandt van Rijn.<\/p>\n
\n\tOlga Kotkov\u00e1, currently the head of the museum\u2019s Old Masters art collection, will now serve as interim director. In a statement, Klemp\u00ed\u0159 praised her as someone \u201cwho knows the environment of the National Gallery perfectly and at the same time has a clear professional vision for its further development.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tKnast, who was born in Poland, seemed to suggest to the Czech press that she did not see the dismissal coming. \u201cI am somewhat surprised by this decision,\u201d she told the television channel CT.<\/p>\n
\n\tSome have raised questions about how the dismissal was conducted. \u201cIt is not the dismissal of the Director General that surprises me, but the way it was done,\u201d Martin Baxa, a former Czech culture minister, told Czech Radio\u2019s R\u00e1dio\u017eurn\u00e1l. \u201cThe norm is that such a significant step is announced by the Minister of Culture, ideally alongside the director at a press conference, where both explain their positions and conclusions. Nothing like that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/eee4be9279b63ccdc62281d40d96d419ca410744.jpg?w=1024″] Czech culture minister Oto Klemp\u00ed\u0159 dismissed Alicja Knast from her post as director of Prague\u2019s National Gallery, generating scrutiny over what precipitated the decision. Within the Czech Republic, the dismissal has been viewed by some as a politically motivated gesture. Knast took up the position in 2021, having been appointed to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1838213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1838213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1838213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1838213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1838213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}