A 600-year-old astronomical clock in Prague, a major tourist attraction, is at the centre of a row after claims that an artist used friends' likenesses in a controversial restoration. The Orloj clock, on the medieval old town hall, underwent a £2.1m refurbishment that finished in 2018 to great fanfare.
The dispute centres on a reproduction of a 19th-century calendar painting by Josef Mánes that adorns the clock's astrolabe. Local heritage group Club for Old Prague alleges that artist Stanislav Jirčík deviated significantly from the original, which dates from 1866 and is now in Prague's city museum. The Czech culture ministry has launched an investigation.
Complainant Milan Patka says the reproduction radically alters the appearance, age, skin tone and even gender of figures. For instance, a red-haired girl representing Virgo is replaced by a middle-aged woman with grey hair and an earring. A smiling female Aquarius becomes a short-haired man. The original black dog is now brown and white with a raised tail. Some figures reportedly resemble Jirčík's friends, including novelist Kateřina Tučková, who acknowledged the resemblance on Facebook.
Citing experts, Czech news site Deník N suggested the changes were so radical they must have been intentional, perhaps as a joke. Jirčík has not commented. Adam Scheinherr, Prague's deputy mayor for transport and heritage, called the painting "banal and done by an amateur" after preliminary investigations, and indicated a replacement may be commissioned. He noted that earlier copies of Mánes' work were faithful and uncontroversial.
