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Jiří Lobkowicz: I am against selling the Czech heritage!

20. 7. 2010

PRAGUE, July 20th, 2010 -- The information that Czech Republic should sell or exchange the Lobkowicz Palace, which has been used until now by the German embassy, has been received with disapproval by a descendant of the Lobkowicz branch.

A Czech version of this article is in CLICK HERE

The meeting between the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg with his German counterpart Guido Westerwellem in Berlin today had, officially, just a "tradition and courtesy" character. The German minister of course confirmed their interest in the Lobkowicz Palace and said that: "the site of our embassy in Prague is a historically valuable place for Germany". Jiří Lobkowicz, descendant from the branch whom the palace belonged to until 1927 warns that that building -- one of the paramount works of Italian architects Giovanni Battista Alliprandi and Bartolomeo Scotti -- is one of the top gems of the Barroque era, and was considered by the Lobkowicz family as their main residence.

"I understand that in modern times, especially in 1989, that palace became a place that stayed in the memories of thousands of Germans who were escaping to the West. History, however, didn't start neither ended in 1989", says Lobkowicz. "I consider the attempts to exchange the building for another or to sell what is part of this country's heritage insensitive, not only because of the history of my family, but even for what it means to the history of this country", he added. .

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Obsah vydání | Pondělí 2.8. 2010