The founding institution, the Central Bank of Hungary
The Central Bank of Hungary’s efforts to promote the arts align with its social responsibility strategy. According to this, its task is to present and support the values of fine arts in Hungary and contemporary Hungarian artists to preserve and perpetuate the traditions of culture and art.
As part of this mission – and in line with international central banking practices – in recent years, it has established a collection of fine art through its subsidiary MNB-Ingatlan Kft., which now contains more than a thousand works of art, including pieces by such renowned artists as Judit Reigl, Simon Hantai, Ilona Keserü, Imre Bak and Dezső Korniss.
The founding institution, the Central Bank of Hungary
The Central Bank of Hungary’s efforts to promote the arts align with its social responsibility strategy. According to this, its task is to present and support the values of fine arts in Hungary and contemporary Hungarian artists to preserve and perpetuate the traditions of culture and art.
As part of this mission – and in line with international central banking practices – in recent years, it has established a collection of fine art through its subsidiary MNB-Ingatlan Kft., which now contains more than a thousand works of art, including pieces by such renowned artists as Judit Reigl, Simon Hantai, Ilona Keserü, Imre Bak and Dezső Korniss.
Artworks in the Central Bank buildings
In line with the practices deployed in the case of the collections of international central banks and corporate institutions, a large part of the collection, nearly 700 works of art, is on display in the offices and common areas of the buildings used by the central bank. While in the Buda Centre of the Hungarian National Bank, it is typically figurative or calligraphic work which is exhibited, in the Hungarian Money Museum and Visitor Centre (the former Postal Palace), the selection represents the work of the Neo-Avant-Garde generation and the tendencies of Geometric Abstraction.
However, the installation is dynamic, with works often relocated and rotated to be displayed in other exhibition spaces, allowing visitors to experience a broader range of works.
The procedure of collecting
The collection’s expansion has been and continues to be guided by the suggestions of renowned art historians, including galleries dedicated to contemporary Hungarian artists, to ensure that a representative collection of artworks from contemporary Hungarian culture is preserved for posterity. The selection of works was initially proposed by Dr Julia Fabényi, Director of the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Dr Katalin Keserü, art historian, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts and Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Art History at ELTE, and Dr Katalin Spengler, collector, art writer, editor and founding member of Centre Pompidou International Circle Central European Committee. Besides Dr Julia Fabényi, Dr Zsolt Petrányi, art historian, chief museologist and head of the Hungarian National Gallery’s Contemporary Collection and Dr Gábor Rieder, art historian, are members of the current advisory board.
Collection in the public eye
The aim of MNB Arts and Culture, which manages and takes care of the collection, is to make the collection accessible and meaningful to the public. The collection’s contemporary material was digitalised during the pandemic and made available to the public through our virtual platform. We also actively collaborate with the museums of Hungary through art loans; thus, the works selected from our collection can enrichen, for example, an important retrospective exhibition of an artist’s lifetime achievements. We have established our venue for temporary exhibitions in the MNB Buda Centre (1013 Budapest, Krisztina körút 55.). We aim to attract and involve a broad audience by implementing various accompanying events, museum educational programmes and dialogue-initiating tours.