In connection with a recent case when paintings were lent to Brand Lab Kft, a company associated with Árpád Habony, an informal advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Baán said the works were lent under safe conditions and returned after three months unharmed.

He noted that since 2010, such loans have not required ministry approval. Baán said he knows Habony well and was a witness at his wedding, but this fact had “no influence in this case”.

The paintings were lent for a film shooting, which is a reasonable request, and were kept under safe conditions, which the museum checked, he added.

The museum was under no pressure, it acted rationally and gained 500,000 forints (EUR 1,620) from the transaction, Baán said, adding that most of the artworks on loan were usually lent “for practically no charge”.

Baán said, however, that in view of the ensuing ire which the case has elicited, the Museum will not to lend to private companies in the future.

Last week the opposition Együtt party filed a complaint in the matter and said the paintings lent to Habony were in a value of 300 million forints and they were kept at Habony’s former unofficial address at a flat in central Budapest’s Szerb Street, where they were not safe.

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