It was revealed last week after lengthy litigation that the museum had lent ten Renaissance and Baroque paintings from the 16th century worth some Ft 300 million to Brand Lab, a company associated with Habony, for a net monthly sum of Ft 150,000.

The paintings were in a flat on Szerb utca 9 in downtown Budapest, which is officially rented by the Habony’s former mother-in-law.

Baán told reporters yesterday that some 3,000 works of art from the museum are on deposit in various places.

He recalled that a ministry position paper issued in 2010 did not make the approval of the ministry mandatory for deposit lending. Museum staff proceeded in that spirit when lending paintings to Brand Lab, which was a mistake but a mistake in good faith, he said.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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