Czech noble family, restored to palace and art treasures, put all on display
PRAGUE -- One of the Czech Republic's oldest noble families put its family treasure trove of works of art on show to the public on Monday at a restored palace in the heart of Prague.
The "Prince's Collection" exhibition includes paintings by Bruegel, Canaletto and Velasquez, collected over the centuries by the Lobkowicz family and returned to them at the start of the 1990s following confiscation by the former communist regime...
As well as paintings, the collection includes the manuscripts of three symphonies dedicated by composer Ludwig van Beethoven to Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowicz (1772-1816), one of the family's biggest art patrons.
A large part of the collection has been transferred from one of the family's stately homes outside Prague to be housed in the Lobkowicz Palace, which forms part of the Prague Castle complex dear to tourists.
Hundreds of stonemasons, painters and carpenters spent the last 14 months spectacularly reviving the palace's splendour and preparing it for its new role after it was previously used as an annex to the National Museum.
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The "Prince's Collection" exhibition includes paintings by Bruegel, Canaletto and Velasquez, collected over the centuries by the Lobkowicz family and returned to them at the start of the 1990s following confiscation by the former communist regime...
As well as paintings, the collection includes the manuscripts of three symphonies dedicated by composer Ludwig van Beethoven to Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowicz (1772-1816), one of the family's biggest art patrons.
A large part of the collection has been transferred from one of the family's stately homes outside Prague to be housed in the Lobkowicz Palace, which forms part of the Prague Castle complex dear to tourists.
Hundreds of stonemasons, painters and carpenters spent the last 14 months spectacularly reviving the palace's splendour and preparing it for its new role after it was previously used as an annex to the National Museum.