The Minister of Culture will begin discussions on a new head of the National Gallery on Tuesday

Prague - Culture Minister Jiří Besser (from TOP 09) will begin the first round of negotiations about the future of the National Gallery (NG) on Tuesday morning. The discussions will conclude at the end of August with the appointment of a new director of the NG. Renata Slámková from the Ministry of Culture informed ČTK today. The gallery has been led by Milan Knížák since 1999, and the previous culture minister Václav Riedlbauch announced a selection process for this position in the spring, but did not appoint a winner and left the decision to his successor.
Besser will first hear the opinions of Milena Bartlová from the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno and the director of the Open Society organization Marta Smolíková, and in the afternoon he will discuss with Michal Stehlík, the dean of the Prague Faculty of Arts, Slámková said. She pointed out that all three were members of the commission that selected a new director for the National Gallery earlier this year.
The previous minister Václav Riedlbauch organized a selection process for a new director of the NG, and the international selection committee identified art historian Jiří Fajt as a candidate. However, Riedlbauch left the decision to his successor and recommended three names. In addition to Fajt, they include the current director of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Marek Pokorný, and economist Vladimír Rösel.