The unique gilded plaques from Bojná will remain in the Nitrian safe. He will exhibit copies in the archeoskanzena in Moravia.
Originally, the Ponitrian Museum was supposed to lend the originals for the exhibition. This is evidenced by the contract, which was published in the central register on April 1.
In the end, this decision was changed at the last minute. The Slovak side justified this by the extraordinary value of the exhibits and security risks.
The set consists of six plaques and three borders from the beginning of the 9th century. According to the official legend, they were found decades ago by a forest worker.
In the past, the originals have already been presented at several prestigious exhibitions in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the Vatican.
The originals got a stop sign
From April 28 to the end of November, the exhibition “Elite of Great Moravia III. Christianity” is held in the Archeoskanzen Modrá na Morava. Several exhibits were also lent there by the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Republic with its seat in Nitra.
According to the original plans, two original plaques with borders, which are in the vault of the Ponitrian Museum, were to be transported to the Czech Republic on Tuesday under strict security measures.
Then there was talk of a postponement of the deadline, allegedly to wait for some kind of security certificate.
However, we learned from the Czech Republic on Monday that the originals will not make it to Modra pri Velehrad.
“The Ponitrian Museum will provide you with information on why. We are not competent for that,” wrote Barbora Onderková from the Moravian Regional Museum.
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They will cancel the original contract
“The original intention was changed based on a reassessment of the extraordinary value of the exhibits, on the basis of which a decision was made not to lend them in their original form,” reads the opinion given to us by Patrícia Žáčiková, director of the Ponitrian Museum.
She wrote that the loan of archaeological finds is a sensitive matter associated with security risks. Therefore, copies will be loaned to the Czech Republic. When, she did not say, because “the transport is subject to the security regime.”
It is supposed to be faithful and very high-quality copies, which were made twenty years ago by top experts in Germany.
“Due to the current situation, the original contract will be cancelled,” added Žáčiková.
They communicated with the ministry
The change of opinion at the last moment caught many by surprise. The source claims that the Ministry of Culture intervened.
“The Ministry of Culture proceeded as standard in the process of administering the loan to the Czech Republic as well as in communication with the museum, it did not negatively influence our decision in any way,” wrote Žáčiková.
“The Ponitrian Museum in Nitra is within the scope of establishment of the Nitra Self-Governing Region. The statutory body acts and decides independently and is responsible for its decisions,” said Petra Demková, director of the Department of Communication at the Ministry of Culture.
According to her, the department “does not interfere in the activities of any museum and sees no reason to comment on the decision of the statutory body of the Ponitrian Museum in Nitra”.
The exhibits have already been transported
On Wednesday, we also contacted the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Republic, which together with the Ponitra Museum has the plaques in its custody. Their owner is the state. We have not yet received answers to our questions.
Meanwhile, about thirty archaeological exhibits were moved from the institute yesterday. A private press agency exclusively reported on it.
She wrote that the rarest Great Moravian finds were transported from Nitros to the Czech Republic for an exhibition, they were accompanied by a police escort. SITA also mentions replicas of plaques that were lent by the municipality of Bojná.
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The sponsors had a condition
Archaeologist from the Ponitrian Museum Tomáš Dragun says that the value of the plaques is incalculable from a historical point of view. They are proof of the spread of Christianity and writing in our territory even before the arrival of Cyril and Methodius.
They were probably used to decorate a portable altar or a cabinet for remains. According to archaeologists, the find is probably related to a mission from the north Italy in Aquileia.
In 2006, we wrote that the plaques were found by a “forest worker during excavation work in Bojná” and they came into the hands of experts decades later. The sponsors paid 280,000 crowns and the county paid the remaining 20,000.
“The sponsors made a condition that the plaques must not leave Nitra,” said Alexander Ruttkay, then director of the SAV Archaeological Institute in Nitra.
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They put them out years ago
The exhibits are in a safe, visitors to the Ponitrian Museum last saw them in 2021. Not even copies are on display.
According to the contract for the loan of two original plaques and two frames, the museum in Brno was obliged to insure the loaned items against all risks.
They were to be transported and displayed under strict security conditions. For example, the contract stated an air-conditioned environment with a temperature of 18 to 22 degrees and a humidity of 50 to 60 percent.
