PRAGUE.- The Lidice Art Collection (LAC) at the Lidice Memorial in the Czech Republic received a landmark donation of 65 artworks from the Nahit & Huma Kabakci Collection (NHK Collection), generously gifted by Turkish-British custodian of the NHK Collection Huma Kabakci. This donation is the most significant addition to LAC in recent years. Lidice Art Collection already holds Gerhard Richter's "Onkel Rudi" (1965), currently on display at his XXL retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Blinky Palermo, Mona Hatoum and Alfredo Jaar. This donation highlights the collection's renewed international profile and its mission as a public, solidarity-based collection founded in the 1960s.

"Lidice Art Collection stands for memory, resilience, and the power of culture to bridge divides. We are honoured by this exceptional act of generosity. It reinforces the Lidice Art Collection's role as a living public resource that welcomes diverse voices and fosters international solidarity." — Dr. Eduard Stehlík, Director, Lidice Memorial.
The gift highlights artists from Turkic-speaking regions while broadening the LAC's global perspective and fostering dialogue across different geographies and generations. The signing ceremony featured several notable attendees: Dr Eduard Stehlík, Director of the Lidice Memorial; Huma Kabakci, the custodian of the NHK Collection; René Block, curator and the largest donor to LAC; and Marek Pokorný, Director of PLATO Ostrava and a member of the LAC Council. The event was hosted and moderated by Miloslav Vorlíček, the Curator of the Lidice Art Collection.

“This gift—which I hope will be the first of many in building an important network—is both a personal and collective gesture. It honours my father’s vision and legacy while extending it into public life. My father believed that art could foster empathy, dialogue, and solidarity across generations and geographies, particularly across Turkic-speaking countries. By gifting more than sixty works from the NHK Collection to the Lidice Memorial, I hope to continue this spirit of openness, ensuring these artworks live beyond private walls and speak to wider audiences. It is deeply meaningful to share this collection with a place that itself stands as a symbol of resilience and remembrance. This collaboration marks not only an act of preservation but one of connection—between Turkey, the Czech Republic, and the many voices that shape our shared cultural memory.” — Huma Kabakci, custodian and carer of the NHK Collection.

Spanning generations and geographies, this donation unites artists whose practices strongly resonate with Lidice's mission. Among contemporary voices, Volkan Aslan explores half-remembered narratives by manipulating everyday objects into subtly surreal structures. İpek Duben examines themes of identity, feminism, and migration across various media, while Işıl Eğrikavuk advances dialogue-based performance rooted in protest and civic imagination. Babi Badalov's visual poetry bends and splices languages to reflect on the theme of displacement. Sabina Shikhlinskaya, a pioneer of conceptual art in Azerbaijan, investigates the evolving relationship between the individual and society. From Bosnia and Herzegovina, Edin Numankadić's post-war assemblages and painterly practice trace memory through found materials. Georgian painter Gia Gugushvili merges pedagogy and artistic practice with a lyrical approach to form and place.

The selection also includes canonical figures whose work has significantly shaped visual culture across the region and beyond. Ara Güler, the legendary photojournalist known as the "Eye of Istanbul" is celebrated for his humanist images that have entered the global canon. Ferruh Başağa, a key Turkish modernist, is known for his abstract language that fuses vivid colour with avant-garde experimentation. Alexander Kosolapov's incisive, pop-inflected juxtapositions, such as the iconic Lenin Coca-Cola, critique the intersections of ideology and consumer culture. Finally, Czech artist František Burant, born in the nearby village of Železná, will see his work resonate in a new context through this incredibly generous donation. Together, these artists anchor the donation in the lived histories of memory, language, and resistance while opening new avenues for research and exhibitions for the Lidice Art Collection.

"This gift extends our core mission: to steward a public, solidarity-based collection for future generations. It strengthens our curatorial and educational work and opens new avenues for research, exhibition, and public programmes connecting Central Europe with Turkic-speaking cultural ecologies." — Miloslav Vorlíček, Curator, Lidice Art Collection.

The Lidice Art Collection was established through solidarity and continues to grow as a public resource for research, exhibitions, and education. This donation will expand and support our curatorial projects, public programmes, and residencies for underprivileged curators.