The exhibition, which opened exactly 100 years to the day after the museum?s founding by Emperor Franz Josef, is one of the most expensive ever organised in Hungary, costing HUF 400 million. The works in the exhibition have been insured for a value of HUF 150 billion.
Hiller praised the efforts of those who organised the exhibition, noting that it would raise the Museum of Fine Arts to a new level in comparison with other great European museums. To commemorate the anniversary of the museum?s founding, Hiller presented it with a 2,500 year-old Etruscan stone carving on behalf of the state.
Also attending the ceremony were Princess Mabel of the Netherlands, former Hungarian President Árpád Göncz and some of the directors of Europe?s largest museums.
Museum director László Baán said the museum?s reputation has been built on a collection which can hold its own when compared to the collections of other European museums as well as an expert staff.
The museum has organised a series of special exhibitions in its centenary year, of which ?Van Gogh in Budapest? is the biggest. The museum expects to draw as many as 600,000 visitors by year-end.
Baán noted that the Museum of Fine Arts was Hungary?s best-sponsored cultural institution this year. He expressed special appreciation to the ING banking group, which granted HUF 100 million to support the exhibition as well as the National Bank of Hungary which also gave HUF 100 million.
Baán added that an exhibition entitled ?The Heydays of the Museum of Fine Arts? also opened on Friday. The exhibition presents the first few decades of the museum?s history.
