National
Development Agency

The new underground level of the Museum of Fine Arts represents the most significant new cultural building investment in Budapest for the upcoming years. The investment will be implemented within the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan with the help of EU funding of over 3.3 billion HUF in value. The assistance contract of the priority project was ceremoniously signed in the Museum on Thursday. This document was signed by Dr Tamás Lukovich, Director of Pro Regio Public Benefit Company and Dr László Baán, Director of the Museum in the presence of Mr László Varju, State-Secretary of the Ministry for National Development and Economy, Mr Balázs Mosonyi, Director of the Regional Development Programmes at the National Development Agency and Dr Pál Steiner, President of the Central Hungary Regional Development Council.

The number of visitors to leading European museums has increased dramatically over the past few decades; exhibitions organised in Hungary over the past few years demonstrate that major exhibitions may even attract up to several hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Museum. Visitor demands have also changed in the meantime: today institutions not only need to focus on safekeeping and exhibiting objects of art, but they also need to function as a sort of "entertainment centre".     

The Government decision to build the underground extensions by using EU funding of over 3.3 billion HUF in value was made on 27 July 2007. This decision makes it possible to extend the Museum by nearly 9000 square meters. The visitor-friendly underground level of the Museum and tourist centre to be constructed is the most significant development to take place on Heroes Square and in the Museum alike since it was opened back in 1906.   
The underground level will accommodate spaces, functions and services (temporary exhibitions, children’s workshop, conference room, museum shop, café and restaurant) that today play a key role in the life of any major European museum and its surroundings. This will be completed in a way that the original external building components and features of the Museum of Fine Arts planned by Albert Schikedanz will remain intact and unchanged. At the same time, conditions for hosting tourists on the most frequently visited square of the city will drastically change. The 3.7 billion HUF investment not only targets the Museum; a new tourist centre will also be constructed on Heroes Square registered as a World Heritage site.        

Plans for the extension of the Museum of Fine Arts have been in the process of being drafted since 2005 under the direction of architect Mr Zsolt Szécsi. Plans concerning the old building are being compiled by Mr István Mányi, the architect who has been continuously planning the reconstruction of the building for several decades. Mr Tamás Karácsony DLA architect and his associates, winning bidders of the plan proposal tender bid announced last winter joined in the work this spring. Building permit plans were jointly developed by these three planners.     

The tender plans will be developed following contracting and the tender call for the selection of the prime contractor will be announced after this. The construction of the new building will begin in autumn 2009 and is expected to be completed by spring 2011.