Jan Masaryk’s art collection, gifted to the Czech state, comes “home”
A painting by Oskar Kokoschka, prints by Václav Hollar, a drawing by Mikoláš Aleš : those and other art works from the estate of former foreign minister Jan Masaryk have been gifted to the Czech state, courtesy of the family of Lumír Soukup, Masaryk’s personal secretary in London. At a ceremony at Černín Palace this week Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský expressed his thanks for “a gift of exceptional significance for the Czech nation”.
During WWII and Czechoslovakia’s exiled government in London, Jan Masaryk entrusted his personal secretary Lumír Soukup with part of his diplomatic and personal archive, which Mr. Soukup safeguarded for many years and donated to the National Archives in Prague in the 1990s. Masaryk’s trusted aide went further – he personally acquired and saved a collection of artworks that originally adorned Jan Masaryk’s London apartment.
Lumír Soukup’s daughter, Alenka Soukup, has now donated the entire collection to the Czech state. At a ceremony in Černín Palace this week she said she was glad that the artefacts her parents had safeguarded from 1948 onward have finally returned home.
“These were works of art that Jan Masaryk had taken with him to London during the Second World War. Then afterwards, after my father fled the country in 1948, he bought the collection at an auction. So they were always part of our family. The archives were in boxes, in trunks, in the various houses we lived in. And the paintings were on the wall. When we moved to France, after my father retired, they went with us. And after 1989, it was safe for them to come home.”
Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský expressed the Czech nation’s gratitude for what he described as “a gift of exceptional significance for the Czech nation”. He said the Soukup family’s decision to make the donation was proof of the strong ties that bound them to their homeland.
“This generous gift transcends cultural and political significance and touches the very heart of our nation. The collection from Masaryk’s London flat is not just a display of cultural richness but also proof of the close relationship between the Masaryk family and leading Czech artists of the time. Among them were Oskar Kokoschka, Jaromír Stretti-Zamponi, and Jan Štursa—friends of the Masaryk family as well as artists. Their close ties imbue these works not only with artistic value but also with a deep human message of friendship, gratitude, and faith in a better democratic world,” Lipavský said.
The Soukup family preserved the collection for decades, first in the United Kingdom and later in southern France. Asked whether there was any piece she found it particularly difficult to part with, Alenka Soukup responded:
“It is difficult to part with each one of them, but the works were never ours; they belong to the Czech people. We always knew they would eventually come home.”
The ceremony at Černín Palace was attended by the ambassadors of France and the United Kingdom, Stéphane Crouzat and Matt Field, both of whom highlighted the historical and symbolic importance of the collection’s return. They also recalled their countries’ support for the Czech Republic in hard times.
“I am pleased that Jan Masaryk had such a close relationship with London. It was his second home, his place of exile during the war,” Ambassador Field said.
Crouzat added that this year France, together with the United Kingdom and the United States, handed archival materials to the Czech Foreign Ministry to aid the continuing investigation into Jan Masaryk’s death.
The art collection from Masaryk’s London residence has now become part of the exhibition Immortales, Through the Eyes of Time, curated by artist Patrik Hábl in the Riding School of the Tuscany Palace. Hábl complemented the display with his own works, including new portraits of Jan Masaryk and his brother Herbert.
