Hockey teams of actors and journalists contributed to the restoration of the Hockey Player statue in Prague

statue

Buštěhrad/Praha - The hockey teams of personalities around the Sklep theater and sports journalists contributed 40,000 crowns to restore the Prague statue Hockey Player by artist Zdeněk Němeček. The Gallery of the Capital City of Prague is conducting an online fundraiser for the repairs. It aims to raise about 150,000 crowns; today, over 100,000 crowns were in the account. Members of the amateur teams Sklepovští sršáni and Čeští lvi raised the money among themselves, their representatives, theater workers Michal Caban and Pavel Truhlář, told ČTK. Today, they received a thank-you certificate from the gallery’s program Adopt a Statue at the Houska and Douda workshop in Central Bohemian Buštěhrad. During the first fundraising in this program last spring, about 186,000 crowns were raised for the restoration of the statue of Karel Hynek Mácha on Petřín Hill.

The sculpture Hockey Player has stood in front of the sports hall in Bubenec since 1985. It commemorates three World Championships in hockey that took place in Prague in 1972, 1978, and 1985, during which Czechoslovak hockey players won two gold and one silver medal. The aluminum figure of the hockey player itself does not need significant intervention; cleaning and surface conservation were planned. However, the problem lay in its attachment to the base.

"We found that the corrosion of the embedded spikes had reached such a level that it needs to be removed immediately," said Marie Foltýnová, curator of Prague’s public sculptures, to ČTK. According to Ivan Houska from the Houska and Douda workshop, it was enough to carelessly bump into the base, and the statue risked falling. "We will solve a new method of attachment," he stated.

According to Foltýnová, the Adopt a Statue program is not just about money for restoration but also about building a positive relationship between the public and art in public spaces. Members of the amateur teams learned about the renovation of the Hockey Player from the media, according to Caban. "I first approached the Sklepovští sršáni, then I reached out to the Čeští lvi to see who among the players wanted to join. We raised a sum of 40,000 crowns, which seemed symbolic since it has been 40 years since the statue was installed," he said. His team regularly competes with the Čeští lvi on the outdoor field at Na Františku. "The statue shows that it is not just about sports but also about social and cultural gatherings," added theater worker Truhlář on behalf of the Čeští lvi.

Members of Sklepovští sršáni include architect David Vávra, artist Krištof Kintera, actors Petr and Matěj Forman, or cameramen Tomáš Nováček and Vojtěch Kopecký. The Czech lions team started around journalist Marek Šálek; later, people from film or television commentator Robert Záruba joined.

Zdeněk Němeček is the author of several sculptures with themes of sports and movement. For example, his Basketball Player stands in front of the Folimanka hall in Prague 4, and there used to be Němeček's goalkeeper near the Letna football stadium.