Best of Budapest & Hungary

BÁV Plc. (a major player in Hungarian pawnbroking and art trade) celebrates its 250th birthday with an anniversary exhibition entitled ‘250 Years of BÁV’ at the BÁV Art Auction House and Gallery in Budapest. The unusual exhibition is on display until November 12.

    The exhibition features 250 exceptional works of art, paintings, jewelry and furniture, each of which represents an important treasure from the past and present of the company, founded in 1773, and of Hungary.

    BÁV's activities are essentially defined by the handicrafts and art trade. The predecessor of the company was launched by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa in 1773. The successor is now not only a financial services provider but also an unavoidable player in the domestic art trade.

    At the opening ceremony, Elek Nagy, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BÁV, emphasized that nowhere else, only in this business, only at BÁV, can the unique interweaving of finance and art be found.

    As he said, the Hungarian National Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Applied Arts, the Hungarian National Gallery and the Museum of Military History have lent works of art to the exhibition that were added to their collections through BÁV Plc.

    The Hungarian National Museum, which has a century-long relationship with BÁV, lent 113 works of art – almost half of the exhibits – for the jubilee exhibition. Top quality pieces from the Eötvös collection, the glass ceramics collection, the clock collection, the weapons collection and the medal collection were brought over from the museum.

    One of the highlights of the exhibition is a piece of the coronation robe, which the National Museum bought at a BÁV auction.

    According to the press release, the activities of BÁV Plc. are characterized by both antiquity and modernity, tradition and renewal. Supporting artists, protecting works of art and, as one of Hungary's oldest successor companies, acting as a link between private collectors and museums still play an important role in the company's life. Thanks to this, in the last 100 years, some 3,000 works of art have been transferred from private collectors to museums.