Both fascism and communism (or existing socialism, however we call it as it betrayed communist and socialist ideals) tried to spread their ideology and culture by creating and placing to public spaces sculptures expressing their ideology and idealising their history. After the fall of these systems, the question remained: should these sculptures, of which some had artistic value, be destroyed (as was Stalin's - not out of considerations but out of passion - at the beginning of the 1956 revolution in Hungary)?
The answer of Germany and Hungary was to place them in a separate museum. Politico wrote an article about this dilemma but forgot about the Hungarian museum. When I sent them a contribution about it, they removed the statement that the German one were the only one but did not write about the Hungarian one, did not even mention it.
So here is about this one - it is unique in that it is on open air which fits the sculptures intended to stand on open air better.
One example of a statue with artistic value is a paraphrase of a modernist mobilising
poster from the 1910 "Commune", which stood intentionally on the site of the
"Regnum Marianum" chapel, referring to the affiliation of Hungary to
Virgin Mary, considered the protector of the country. The post-modern
statue of Marx and Engels was almost ironical while the main figure of
the liberation monument on Mount Gellért, an obligatory stop for tourist
buses, was one of the most-seen symbols of the city of Budapest.
The
solution decided by the first center-right government after the 1990
change was to assemble the statues in a park outside Budapest, on the
road where generations drove to the favourite summer spot of not only
Hungarians but also where East- and West-Germans could meet and close to
a now defunct restaurant "Panoráma"
(http://www.ilyenisvoltbudapest.hu/media/zoo/images/panorama_8e1558b7ed936a87d5bc35545bf82697.jpg),
allowing a view over the outskirts of the Hungarian capital.
The
park was since complemented with a cinema other exhibitions and
attractions and hosting events (https://www.mementopark.hu/en/home/).
Moving, removing and reinstating sculptures is not new in Hungary - and is a sport still exercised today.
The
"Statue of Hungarian grief"
(http://banhegyiferenc.hu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ONLINE-AJ%C3%81NL%C3%93.pdf),
donated in 1932 by Lord Rothermere, who sympathised with the feelings
of Hungarians due to the truncation of their country in Trianon, was
moved in front of the Palatinus open-air bath (as it depicted a naked
female figure) in 1945, just to be then finding refuge in the garden of
the heart convalescence sanatorium in Sopron, a sub-Alpine resort close
to the Austrian border (recreation seems to play a role in the itinerary
of our sculptures).
Nowadays, the surroundings of the Hungarian Parliament are being "re-sculpted" to their state in the 1940s.
A
monument to the prime minister of the 1956 revolution, found his
monument (erected already after the 1990 political change) moved in the
place of the mentioned Marx and Engels to make place for a
Trianon-memorial (no, we do not venerate the Bourbons, we mean the peace
treaty after WW I).
The 1848 revolution and war of
independence had a monument on Kossuth square, in front of the
Parliament since 1927. Mátyás Rákosi, the communist dictator of Hungary
in the 50s found the monument "too pessimistic" and had it replaced by
another one (sculpted by the creator of the monument on Mount Gellért,
by the way). The FIDESZ government found the old monument in Dombóvár,
where it was moved by the communists and put it back on Kossuth square
(named after the leader of the war of independence and the main figure
of the monument).
And so on, and do forth: habent sua fata statui.
