Budapest's House Of Terror Museum Closed, Director Fired

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Hungary's culture minister, Zoltán Tarr, has temporarily closed the House of Terror Museum in Budapest and dismissed its director, Mária Schmidt. The minister announced the closure in a Facebook post, stating the museum would reopen later this year after a“review of the exhibition's content.”

This move is part of new Prime Minister Péter Magyar's broader efforts to address his predecessor Viktor Orbán's influence over state media and cultural institutions. Magyar secured a landslide victory this spring, ending Orbán's 16-year tenure as a far-right nationalist leader.

Opened in 2002 during Orbán's first term, the House of Terror Museum featured exhibitions exploring Hungary's fascist and communist periods. According to the Budapest Times, the museum was managed by the KKETTK Foundation (Foundation for Research on Central and Eastern European History and Society), which Parliament has also dissolved. The foundation's website indicates that more than 8 million people have visited the museum since its opening, and its affiliated institutes have hosted conferences, published books, and organized exhibitions.

When the museum first launched, the New York Times reported that critics called it a“political stunt,” citing its“overly polished retelling of violent history and haunting music.” Schmidt, the former director, also served as an adviser to Orbán. She defended the museum's political stance at the time, telling the Times,“The political motivation of those who work here is to show that the system of terror was terrible-the Communist terror was terrible. Today in Hungary you cannot use the word 'Communist.' People act as though that part of history never happened.” The museum's website currently displays a banner on its homepage, stating it is temporarily closed“due to technical reasons.” Recent exhibitions have included paintings by József Ringhoffer depicting his experiences during the 1953 uprising at the Tiszalök forced-labor camp, and a photographic exhibition from the museum's collection documenting the 1965 Hungarian Revolution.

We previously reported:

Hungary's new government has canceled plans for a New National Gallery in Budapest's City Park, halting construction that stalled since 2019.

Source: ARTnews

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