A Passion for Rescuing Value was inspired by another such exhibition organised by the museum's director a hundred years ago. It took place at the height of the local art nouveau movement, when craft was elevated to a form of art and it found no end to patrons in the Hungarian capital.
These unique objects form an imposing whole. But the exhibition raises some important questions. The museum obviously wants to re-establish its relationship with collectors, patrons and friends of the arts at a time when state funding in the area of culture is shrinking. But it could do this in a far better and more elegant way. These extraordinary artifacts could be presented in something other than dusty glass display cases - the same as those used in the museum's exhibition of objects from private collections in 1907, as photographs reveal. The descriptions of the objects could also be more informative - sometimes they fail even to note to which collection they belong.
