Hungarian Government Scraps New National Gallery
The Hungarian government's decision to cancel construction of the New National Gallery has ended a major European cultural initiative, raising questions over its future.
Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Slyronit, 2013. Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0
The Hungarian government has announced it is halting construction on the new home of the National Gallery in Budapest’s City Park.
Due to open in the next four years, the building would have provided a home for the collections of the Hungarian National Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts. This was part of the Liget Budapest Project, one of Europe’s largest urban cultural development plans aiming to revitalise the Hungarian capital’s városliget (city park) area.
The project, which had been launched in 2013 with a proposed design by the Japanese firm designed by SANAA architects in 2015, had been encountering difficulties over the years. Since 2019, opposition from Budapest’s mayor and environmental groups has stalled the works. A government decree by the new administration has now formally ended construction plans in the park, with the remaining sites due to be returned to public green space.
The decision leaves many answered questions as to where the collection will be housed. Dávid Vitézy, Hungary’s minister for transport and public works, has expressed hope that another location can be found for the “world-class” SANAA project.
Another solution would be to embark on a full-scale renovation of the Buda Castle, where the collection has currently been displayed since 1975. At present, the castle has deteriorated to the point that it poses long-term risks to the safe preservation of the collection, and bringing it up to standard could take eight to ten years.
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