Publication details
Jaromír Neumann a Jiří Frel. Případy profesního a morálního selhání dvojice českých humanitních vědců v období pozdní normalizace
| Title in English | Jaromír Neumann and Jiří Frel. Cases of professional and moral failure of a pair of Czech human scientists in the period of late normalization |
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Comparative look into the situation of the Czech humanities in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The paper reconstructs the circumstances of the criminal prosecution and trial with Jaromír Neumann (1924-2001), a distinctive charismatic personality of the modern art history, before the eyes of the public embodying the contemporary ideals of an infallible connoisseur and scientist. Neumann, the former director of the Institute of Art Theory and History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, at the time of the arrest and commencement of the process, a researcher at the National Gallery in Prague and a s.c. correspondent member of the ČSAV was prosecuted for participating in illegal antique trade, convicted on charges of speculation and usury for five years imprisonment unconditionally. Neumann's steep post-war by ideological engagement insured career of a credible and popular scientist and his unexpected conclusion offers a comparison with the professional fate of the leading Czech classical archaeologist, Jiří Frel (born Froehlich, 1923–2006). Frel, until his emigration in 1970, the leading cadre of the Faculty of arts of Charles University in Prague and one of the most successful professional exiles, a long-time agent of MV intelligence service, worked between 1973–1984 until the outbreak of scandal involving large tax and acquisition frauds, as head of the departement of antiquities at Jean Paul Getty Museum at Malibu (part of the J. P. Getty Foundation, LA). From there, he escaped to Paris. |