?When I heard they were going to raise district heating prices ? the gallery is heated by district heating ? my stomach turned. But, of course, I then realized that this is not my job anymore,? said Bereczky, who was appointed once to the post of gallery director and won the job in tenders another three times.
?I don?t envy my successor as we don?t get a cent from the state for upkeep, that?s our job, the state just transfers wages,? he added.
Bereczky said he was proud of the staff he had brought together after first being appointed in 1982.
?When I started the work, I said, ?Whoever wants to and can work, I?ll offer them protection,?? he said.
?It was important that we worked in an honest environment, otherwise we would have not been able to organise such big exhibitions as History-Image, which analyzed time, morals and the balance of power, or Matthias ? Renaissance, Spirit and Form, Munkácsy or Nagybánya and Rippl-Rónai.
Bereczky went to school in Budapest, where he had ?excellent teachers?. He became an avid reader, inspired by his brother, six years his senior.
Bereczky?s brother, who became a doctor, left behind a library with 13,000 volumes when he died.
Bereczky?s father was also a man of learning, completing his medical degree while practicing as a lawyer.
Bereczky applied to the Hungarian and art history faculty of Budapest?s Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) but was not accepted. He worked for a year at a printers, gaining experience he said serves him to this day. Bereczky?s second application to university was accepted and he fell in love with Egyptology, studying under Professor Dobrovits.
As a student, Bereczky travelled, spending a month in the former East Germany to visit all of the country?s museums, visiting Prague and Bratislava, and a building a network of friends along the way.
Bereczky did not go into research after graduating, but took a post at the Defense Ministry?s cultural centre in 1965. There he organised literary evenings as well as sewing courses, and was exposed to folk art.
Latter, he worked for the former Cultural Connections Institute, where he was sent to different places in order to foster cultural ties and organise exhibitions.
In 1968, Bereczky took a job at the Ministry of Culture, where he was in charge of organising the travel affairs of artists and buying artwork.
From 1972, he worked in the scientific, cultural and education department of the central committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party.
?I worked there for ten years, during which time it became clear that I had no political ambitions, thus it was that I came to be the head of the Hungarian National Gallery in 1982,? Bereczky said.
