The first beginnings of institutionalized interest in the professional management and promotion of fine arts in our country can be traced back to 1796, when a group of prominent Czech revivalists from the ranks of nobility and bourgeoisie founded the private Society of Patriotic Friends of Art (SVUP), in an attempt to enhance declining artistic taste. One of the main activities of the Society was the establishment of the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art, which thus became the oldest predecessor of today's National Gallery. In 1902, a Modern Gallery of the Kingdom of Bohemia (administered by the Czech Lands) was established at the initiative of King František/Franz Josef I., focused on 19th and 20th century art. In 1936, the collections of SVUP were nationalized and transformed into the central art collection of the Czechoslovak Republic. The central collection was expanded in 1942 to include the collections of the closed Modern Gallery. The resulting ensemble of art works was known as the Bohemian-Moravian Regional Gallery, but it was unofficially referred to as the “National Gallery”. In 1949, also a collection of graphics of the National Museum (including the so-called Hollareum) was nationalized and these three parts laid the foundation for the newly established National Gallery in Prague. In legislative terms, the entire process of establishing the National Gallery was completed by Act No. 148/1949 Coll. of 11 May 1949 on the National Gallery in Prague.
