The Koloděje Castle was acquired by steel magnate Tomáš Chrenek

Prague - The company Pura Vida, which purchased the former government palace and the hunting grounds in Koloděje for 233 million crowns, is owned by the co-owner of Třinec Ironworks and the healthcare group Agel, billionaire Tomáš Chrenek.
    The palace had been used by the government for many years and was returned to restitutant Vítězslav Kumpera last year. This grandson of the last owner then decided to sell the monument. The offer to purchase the palace appeared on the internet on January 22. The original price was 250 million crowns.
    Tomáš Chrenek reportedly bought the company Pura Vida a few years ago under the original name Springhill. "Chrenek planned for Pura Vida to build a Costa Rican restaurant of the same name on Prague's Štvanice Island, but he never carried it out, and Pura Vida remained essentially a dormant company. Only now was it used to purchase Koloděje," a source told HN.
    Kumpera applied for the return of the palace in Koloděje in 1991. The Prague land office returned it to him in January 2007, but the state then began to litigate over the palace. It claimed that Kumpera had requested the return of the property after the deadline had passed. However, the courts subsequently ruled that when seizing the monument, the so-called Beneš decrees had been misused, and therefore the restitutant could proceed according to another law that had a longer deadline. "The decree was used in a situation where the Kumperas proved that they did not act hostile towards Czechoslovakia during the occupation," the courts stated.
    The state had seized the palace and other buildings from Antonín Kumpera in 1948 according to the decrees of the president of the republic, which were meant to punish people for collaborating with the Nazi regime. However, Kumpera had received a certificate of national reliability as early as 1945.
    The last owner of the palace, Antonín Kumpera, served as the director of the Waltrovka company during the first republic. He bought Koloděje before the war. In 1947, the Ministry of Interior took over the property and established a school for the National Security Corps there. Since 1955, the government used the palace for ceremonial purposes or meetings.
    The industrialist left Czechoslovakia and lived in Brazil until his death. After November 1989, his grandson claimed the buildings.
    Chrenek is among the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic, controlling Třinec Ironworks, Barrandov film studios, and he also owns the Agel company, which includes a health insurance company, several hospitals, outpatient clinics, and pharmacies. He also operates in the media and energy sectors. In his native Slovakia, he holds an honorary position as the honorary consul of South American Costa Rica.