Hungary

Last update: March, 2025

Monuments

Investments and real estate are priority issues for the government in office since 2010. The area of monuments – built heritage – therefore received attention and was subject of restructuring from early on. The National Office of Cultural Heritage – the top institution of monument protection that had existed since 1872 with different names – was dissolved in 2012. Its functions, mandates, assets and personnel have been subject to a series of reorganisations until a relative consolidation has come about with the enacting of Act C /2023 on Hungarian Architecture. This law transfers responsibility for monuments to the Minister for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage which currently lies with the Minister for Construction and Transport. This ministry oversees the list of protected monuments, administered by the Lechner Knowledge Centre Nonprofit Ltd. (Among others, this institution runs the European Heritage Days in Hungary, in conjunction with the National Committee of ICOMOS.)

Since 2017, the bulk of the monuments in public ownership, more than 50 listed buildings, have been operated by NÖF nkft (NÖF National Heritage Protection and Development Non-Profit LTD). Among others, NÖF oversees the National Palace Programme and the National Castle Programme, generously financed by the government, with due attention to their inclusion on the tourism strategy of the country. In this connection the reconstruction of hilltop fortresses is a special focus.

The valuable archive containing the registry of tens of thousands of monuments between 1872 and 1992 has been transferred to the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Centre, owned and supervised by MMA, the Hungarian Academy of Arts. Lately, this institution has consolidated its position as a centre of scientific activities on the protection of built heritage.

Hungarian achievements in cultural heritage protection are repeatedly acknowledged with EU awards. Two projects have received European Heritage Labels, the Living Heritage of the city of Szentendre being the latest in 2019.

Among the European Heritage / Europa Nostra prizes, the restoration of the Liszt Academy of Music and of the Museum of Fine Arts stand out in the recent past. The latest prize for “Citizens Engagement and Awareness-raising” went to a unique bottom-up initiative in 2023. The ‘Budapest 100’ project celebrates buildings and their memory that were built a hundred years earlier.

The government is committed to the built heritage of Hungarians living beyond the border. Teleki László Foundation, a private non-profit organisation, with roots in the 1980s, gets regular support from the National Cooperation Fund of the government for related projects. The key institution in this remit is the Foundation for the Preservation of the Central European Built Heritage (Közép-európai Épített Örökség Megőrző Alapítvány). At its establishment in 2020, in addition to financial donation, the government endowed shares of two state-owned enterprises. The Foundation has acquired and maintains more than 25 buildings in five neighbouring countries, especially in Slovakia and Romania.

Museums

Responding to the proposal of the newly appointed General Director of the National Museum, in May 2024, the government declared the Museum of Applied Arts, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Trade and Hospitality, the Petőfi Literary Museum and the National Széchényi Library as its member institutions, together constituting the Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Közgyűjteményi Központ). Including the external components of all constituting members, the centre oversees 30 more museums and related institutions across the country, like the Esztergom Castle Museum or the Semmelweis Museum of Medical History (see 1.3.3).   

Preventive archaeological explorations before investment projects offer opportunities for excavations and subsequent activities. Besides their scientific significance, such exercises also produce additional revenues for museums. In 2011, however, conditions took a U-turn, benefiting investors in terms of financial burden and deadlines, which in 2012 were crowned by withdrawing primary responsibility for the entire scope of built heritage, including archaeology, from the minister of culture. Since 2018, this domain is overseen by the Ministry of Construction and Transport; since 2022, the top institution is the National Institute of Archaeology at the National Museum

The Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery, a combined institution since 2012, continue to host exhibitions that attract masses of visitors, including foreign tourists, and enjoy a considerable academic reputation.

In terms of public museum development, the government has announced and is implementing a comprehensive investment plan for the Budapest City Park (Liget Project). From 2022, two new buildings have been completed, the House of Music and the Museum of Ethnography, and the Museum of Photography will move to a reconstructed villa nearby. The new Museum of Contemporary Art is also promised to be built in the coming years. This part of the project has been criticised by those who are concerned about the congestion of the City Park.

In addition to the Museum of Photography founded and still operating in Kecskemét, there are two other public photography collections in Budapest, the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Centre and the Mai Manó House.

On the negative side the list begins with the 150-year-old Museum of Applied Arts: its art nouveau building has been closed for renovation for more than a decade.

EU funds have facilitated the reconstruction of the Hungarian Museum of Natural History which shares the building with a public college. The longer-term solution is still in the air: lately the controversial idea of relocating to the city of Debrecen has been mooted.

The Architecture Museum and the Technology and Transport Museum, which are now united, have all three been waiting since the last century for the decision to erect their buildings.

Hungarikums

A Hungarian speciality is the pyramid of “values”, regulated by a special law since 2012. Towns and villages are encouraged to set up their Committees of Values which select and administer their Repositories of Values. These include buildings, objects, foods, customs, phenomena etc. on a very broad scale. Committees on county level choose items into the regional repositories. Parallel to this, values important for the Hungarian people abroad are also collected by seven committees in the neighbouring countries. The top level is the 21-strong national Hungarikum Committee that decide on the repository of Hungarikums. Currently, in January 2025 this list contains60 items, with a high proportion of intangible cultural heritage. The collection includes the Hungarian members in the Unesco lists of World Heritage and Intangible Heritage, with which the system is in undeclared relation. 

Last update: March, 2025

The nationwide network of public libraries operates upon strong professional tradition, with coordination and guidance of the Library Institute within the Széchényi National Library. The services of small settlements of less than 5000 inhabitants are overseen and assured by the county libraries. Local libraries have adapted to the current protocols of European public libraries: they run programmes for the inhabitants, with children in focus, librarians are active on social media and thus pose a challenge to the network of houses of culture. The digital shift of library operations has advanced, profiting also from EU funds. At the same time librarians complain about restricted resources on salaries, running costs and acquisition.

A burning issue is the location of the National Széchényi Library (now part of the Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre). Its main building in Buda Castle is less and less adequate for its needs but no decision and plans have emerged about the future of this national institution.

The law on archives merged the 19 county archives into the structure of the National Archive. This among other means that they can be accessed through one common website. Budapest and a few more cities have their own archives. Operations of the libraries have been streamlined and become increasingly open and user-friendly.

As far as the canon of national culture is concerned, literature is an area in which conservative and/or nationalist authors of the interwar period are promoted by the authorities, including in school curricula. However, the debates on this subject lost momentum as the opposing camps became entrenched; in literature, the canons of the two national writers' associations did not borrow from each other.

Last update: March, 2025

The performing arts, more specifically theatres, can be considered representative and indicative of the cultural policy developments in Hungary. The theatre profession is sharply divided along political lines, the role of a few – or rather one – influential person is symptomatic about the patronal character of the society. This is not counterbalanced by the composition of the 24-member National Performing Arts Reconciliation Council, several members of which are delegated by organisations outside the NER halo: its majority, nevertheless, votes in support of the government.

The division became manifest by sharing the public theatres in Hungary between the government and the municipality of Budapest when in 2019 the opposition won at the local government elections (earlier joint supervision and financing was the rule). As a symptom, the once common open-air theatre was divided into two, with two different venues: one for the state and one for the city. The second venue of the Opera (with more seats) has also been separated and converted into a commercial concert hall: but in this case both halves belong to the state. The formerly consensual national showcase of theatres (POSZT – National Theatre Reunion in Pécs) was discontinued, and loyalty appears to bias the distribution of financial resources and distinctions. Independent ensembles, which play an important role in the Hungarian performing arts, are dispreferred, especially if they put critical content on stage. On the other side, shows and performers of dubious value are in disproportional favour. A particularly controversial phenomenon is sponsored concerts and biopics of old rock singers from the communist era, which respond to the belated attention with loyalty. In addition, talent shows, popular with viewers also absorb massive public subsidies.

The political and cultural division has spilled over to the top-level educational institute, the University of Film and Theatre Arts SZFE, the account of which is described at 2.1.

Last update: March, 2025

There is no special strategy and no peculiar developments in this area. Relevant processes in the museum and higher education sectors (especially the exhibitions in the National Gallery and the upgrading of the MOME Moholy Nagy University) have important impact on this area.

The annual Art Market has established itself as an emerging regional art fair in east-central Europe. The top 10 prices for 2024 auctions at the largest houses ranged between 300 and 900 thousand euros (with a Titian in first place).