The Regional Museum will build a central depository in Rebešovice for half a billion crowns

Rebešovice - The Moravian Museum (MZM) will build a central depository in Rebešovice near Brno for more than half a billion crowns. The construction officially began today and will last 32 months. Thanks to the central depository, space will be freed up in the historic buildings in the center of Brno, where new exhibition halls and displays will eventually be created, said museum director Jiří Mitáček today to ČTK. Funds currently stored in chateaus in Moravec near Žďár and Budišov in Třebíč district will also be relocated to Rebešovice.

The museum has a laboratory and depositories in several smaller buildings on the outskirts of Rebešovice. The new facility will be constructed nearby, but it will be larger and more modern. The first phase includes a central operational building with laboratories and two sunken depository blocks. There will be space left in the area for potential expansion with additional blocks.

"We want to concentrate all laboratory care here; all rare items that are prepared for loans or large exhibition projects will pass through here," stated Mitáček.

To avoid attracting unnecessary attention, the blocks are sunk into the sloping terrain. Therefore, more than 30,000 cubic meters of soil must be excavated at the start of construction, mentioned Michal Renát from the consortium of construction suppliers. He also mentioned a gas fire suppression system that will protect the collections in case of fire.

MZM is the second largest and second oldest museum in the Czech Republic, after those in Prague and Opava. It was established by imperial decree from Francis I in 1817. It currently manages more than six and a half million items from many scientific fields.

In Rebešovice, the museum plans to store its natural history collections, including stuffed animals that can no longer be hunted today. The zoological depository contains relics from noble hunting expeditions from the 19th century.

The depository will also house a portion of the archaeological and paleontological collections of the Anthropos Institute. Whether the museum staff will also store the Venus of Vestonice, its most valuable exhibit, was not disclosed by the director. "The storage of the Venus is one of the museum's greatest secrets," Mitáček said.