Major international and Hungarian exhibitions will be featured at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Gallery in the coming months, including ancient Chinese terracotta warriors, works by William Blake, and retrospectives of Adolf Fényes and Lajos Tihanyi.
László Baán, Director General of the Museum of Fine Arts and its affiliate institutions, outlined the upcoming exhibition highlights during a press briefing on Monday, writes turizmus.com.
Among the most anticipated exhibitions is “Guardians of Eternity – The Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China,” which opens on November 27, and will run until May 2026.
This is one of the most visually impressive archaeological exhibitions in the world, tracing the rise of the Qin Empire between the 8th and 3rd centuries BCE, and showcasing its key ceremonial objects and symbols,”
Baán said.
The exhibition will feature over 150 ancient artifacts, including ten original terracotta soldiers from the vast clay army discovered in 1974, by farmers digging a well near the tomb of China’s first emperor. In parallel, the Hopp Ferenc Museum of Asian Art will present a complementary exhibition exploring the world of the Asian Huns (Xiongnu).
On September 26, the Museum of Fine Arts will unveil the first-ever Hungarian exhibition dedicated to British visionary artist and poet William Blake (1757–1827), titled “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” Held in cooperation with the Tate Museum, the show runs until January 11, 2026, and includes works by Blake’s contemporaries such as Henry Fuseli, Benjamin West, John Hamilton Mortimer, and J.M.W. Turner, as well as insights into Blake’s influence on Hungarian literary figures like Antal Szerb and Lőrinc Szabó.
Baán also announced a new presentation of 40 recently acquired contemporary artworks, which will be on view for one month starting in mid-October. Additionally, from December 11 to March 15, 2026, the museum will host an exhibition of Georg Baselitz’s mannerist drawings, showcasing one of today’s most influential artists.
At the Hungarian National Gallery, a retrospective of Adolf Fényes, marking the 80th anniversary of his birth, opens on October 10. This will be followed on November 20, by a major exhibition on Lajos Tihanyi, chronicling his artistic legacy.
Terracotta Army, Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Baán also addressed a recent review by the State Audit Office (ÁSZ), which flagged seven acquisitions between 2019 and 2024, as potentially non-compliant with public procurement regulations. The matter has been referred to the Public Procurement Arbitration Board.
We do not dispute that these seven artworks were acquired without formal procurement procedures,” Baán said. “But applying the EU directive to art acquisitions is simply absurd.”
He explained that under a 2014 EU directive, public institutions must follow procurement rules for acquisitions above 220,000 euros, a policy Baán says is incompatible with the reality of the art market, where buyers — not sellers — compete.
In real life, art purchases are not based on competition, but on negotiation. This is not a bidding process — it is a deal-making one,” he added, noting that no major European museum has followed such procurement rules for art acquisitions in the past decade.
According to Baán, museums in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia — all known for strong compliance and financial oversight — also disregard the directive for similar reasons, and are not penalized for doing so.
Western authorities see the directive as impractical and choose to ignore it,”
he said.
He revealed that the Museum of Fine Arts has expanded its collection by nearly 1,000 works through purchases and another 1,800 through donations in the last five years, with a total value exceeding 4.5 billion forints (≈ 11.5 million euros).
The contested purchases — which include works by El Greco, Béla Kádár, Pál Szinyei Merse, and sculptures of the Virgin Mary by Lorenzo and Angelo Di Mariano — had a total value of 1.5 to 2 billion forints (≈ 3.85 to 5.1 million euros).
The El Greco painting alone was worth around 600 million forints (≈ 1.54 million euros), with other works priced just above the procurement threshold.
The audit is still ongoing, but we expect a decision within weeks. It will likely result in a fine,”
Baán concluded.
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Via turizmus.com; Featured image: Facebook/Szépművészeti Múzeum
The post Blake, Baselitz, and the Qin Empire: A Season of Icons in Budapest appeared first on Hungary Today.
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