Director of the Moravian Gallery Pokorný will voluntarily leave his position

Brno - The director of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Marek Pokorný, has resigned. He will remain in office until the end of November. He reportedly made his decision without external pressure, based on his own consideration. "I have been here for a long time," Pokorný told ČTK. He has led the largest art museum in Moravia since 2004.
     "I am happy that as one of the few directors of similar institutions, I am leaving voluntarily, based on reasonable consideration, and I'm not being carried out feet first," said Pokorný. He is expected to disclose details on September 18 at a press conference.
     The Moravian Gallery is established by the Ministry of Culture, which will soon announce a competition for Pokorný's successor. "We will be looking for a new director and manager, preferably of a similar type to Mr. Pokorný," said Markéta Ševčíková, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, to ČTK. According to her, the ministry had no objections to Pokorný's work. She knows the reasons for his resignation but does not want to comment on them.
     The 49-year-old Pokorný is originally an art critic and curator. He worked as a journalist for the newspapers Lidová demokracie and Mladá fronta Dnes, as well as for the magazines Detail and Týden. Before taking up his position at the Moravian Gallery, he was the chief curator of the House of Lords of Kunštát in Brno. Recently, he was mentioned as a candidate for the director of the National Gallery in Prague.
     Under Pokorný's leadership, the Moravian Gallery, for example, acquired Jurkovič's villa in Brno. The gallery also uses three historical palaces in the city center and oversees the birthplace of Josef Hoffmann in Brtnice near Jihlava.