ICOM Czechia

Statement of the Czech Committee of ICOM on the resignation of Martina Lehmannová, director of the Lidice Memorial

Yesterday, on 21 January 2020, the Czech media announced the resignation of Martina Lehmannová, director of the Lidice Memorial and at the same time chair of the Czech Committee of ICOM, from her position as director of the Memorial. The Czech Committee of ICOM regrets the situation very much. Especially during the preparation of the ICOM General Conference in Prague in 2022, which is an immense challenge for Czech museums. However, this definitely does not mean that the preparations of the General Conference will be stopped. On the contrary, this new situation is a strong motivation for the Czech Committee of ICOM to fulfil the planned main conference theme, which is “The Power of Museums”. Our work, supported by the Czech Ministry of Culture, continues.

Board of Czech Committee of ICOM

More information on:  http://www.lidice-memorial.cz/en/memorial/news/press-statement-of-martina-lehmannova-the-director-of-the-lidice-memorial/

Welcome to the Czech National Committee of ICOM.
The Committee was founded in 1994. Here you can find information about our history, which goes back to 1946. Czechoslovakia was among 14 founders of ICOM.
Our main aim is to support Czech museums and galleries, help them to improve their quality. We also aim to  evolve the integration to the global museums community.

ICOM PRAGUE 2022
Dear colleagues we would like to share with You our idea of hosting general conference of ICOM in Prague 2022.
Prague is the best city to host the general conference of ICOM 2022. It is the biggest open air museum in the world. There are more than 100 museum buildings of all kinds of topics in Prague. Here You can find more information.

If you would like to get information about czech museums and galleries, contact for the specialists working in them, please ask on icom@mzm.cz.

For more information about international ICOM see http://icom.museum/.


We would like to thank all participants for attending the international conference Presumption to Responsibility. Museums and contested history. Saying the unspeakable in museums. Conference was held 22.-24.11.2017 in Czech Republic in Brno. The Conference was attended by delegates from eleven countries; participants from Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, the United States, Japan, Hungary and Poland presented their conference paper along with representatives from organizing countries. The issue seems to be even more than burning since it is just the 20th century that is our experienced past, those old days that have been one of the most complicated and tragic periods in the human history so far, when events would take interpretative turns under the baton of totalitarian regimes for decades. In addition to artefacts from World War 1 and World War 2 also the ones relating to migration (exile) or political regimes in Eastern Europe in the second half of the century are becoming objects of musealisation. The forthcoming conference is expected to focus on interpretative attitudes of today’s museum professionals to those periods of history that are broadly perceived negatively or “rather negatively” or controversially by the public for whatever reason.
Organisators: ICOM Czechia, ICOM Austria, ICOM Slovakia
Venue: Czech Republic, Brno
Date: 22.-25. 11. 2017
For more information click here.

ICOM Czech Annual report for 2015.
Czech Commission for UNESCO, Czech Committee ICOM and Czech Commission of Blue Shield organized a seminar entitled “The measures preventing illicit cultural heritage export from Iraq and Syria” on the 23rd September 2015. Seminar was a first summary of activities in our country addressing the issue. Although it seems the Czech Republic is not concerned, the seminar showed that there is a number of activities monitoring endangerment and destruction of cultural heritage in the Middle East. The importance of further cooperation proves not only the undisputed success of activities such as unique Czech project mapping of destructed monuments of Mosul or implementation of  Red List of ICOM, Object ID and the 100 Missing Objects, but as well the request made by the  Police and the Customs officers to train their staff in this field. We agreed that further activities will be developed mainly among Czech authorities ICOM, UNESCO and the Czech police, as this cooperation may bring the most tangible impact. More information see here.

ICOM Czech Prize, National Competition of Museums Gloria Musaealis 2014The Czech Committee of ICOM awarded during the event of Gloria Muaealis Award 17. 5. 2015 National gallery in Prague and The Academy of Science of Czech Reopublic for exhibition Open the Getes of Paradise. The Benedictines in the Heart of Europe 800-1500.

International conference Museum and Change IV. Association of Museums and Galleries of the Czech Republic together with Ministry of Culture and ICOM Czech organise an international conference Museum and Change IV.. The main topic is Documentation of the present in all fields and aspects of museum work. Conference will be held on 12^th – 14^th November 2013, New Building of the National Museum , Vinohradská 1, Prague. More information here.

The Czech National Committee of ICOM awarded prize to the Lidice Memorial for the new Permanent exhibition of Lidice Collection in connection with the czech museum award Gloria Musaealis held 16. 5. 2013. See also ICOM News 2013/2.