Litomyšl selected proposals for the transformation of the area around the statue of Zdeněk Nejedlý

The authors devised various artistic interventions for the space. They proposed, for example, to let the statue be overgrown with roses, to erect 24 stalks resembling the victims of the Litomyšl show trial around it, or to place it on a rotating pedestal.

"In the end, we selected three works and will recommend that the city council approve financial rewards for the authors. The council will also decide whether to announce a second round and how to resolve the entire matter," stated Mayor Radomil Kašpar (KDU-ČSL). The planned budget for the selected projects ranges from 88,000 to 4.2 million crowns.

In the past, some local residents suggested that the city should paint the statue's hands red. This spring, someone draped a noose around the statue's neck.

The statue has stood in Litomyšl since 1978, when the city commemorated the 100th anniversary of Zdeněk Nejedlý's birth. It was created by Jan Hána, an academic sculptor and former rector of the Academy of Fine Arts.

The removal of the sculpture has been discussed by the council twice, in 1989 and 2004. Each time, they voted to keep it. Since 1992, there has been an explanatory inscription by local historian Milan Skřivánek on it, which states, among other things:

"He multiplied and damaged Czech culture. He brought both honor and harm to his native city, which appreciates good and rejects his bad deeds."

Nejedlý, a native of Litomyšl, was a historian, musicologist, literary historian, politician, and public official. Both academics and the general public positively assessed his expertise and breadth of knowledge, but condemned him for his involvement in favor of the communist regime and support for Stalinism. Nejedlý was, among other things, a Minister of Education without portfolio.

In 1950, he approved a fabricated political trial against priest and rector of the Piarist College, František Stříteský, and 23 others. When he was asked for help by the parents of several students, he yelled at them that "the reaction must be destroyed like a nest of vipers." The accused were collectively sentenced to 220 years in prison.